->  DW> are problems, though, when I try to look at Liquid Crystal Displays, 
->  DW> which also use polarized light. I have to take them off to gas up my 
->  DW> car, since the display on the pump is a LCD one. Through the glasses, 
->  DW> it just looks black. I would have expected the designers of the 
->  DW> displays to think of this, and rotate the plane of polarization 90 
->  DW> degrees. 
 
-> That would enhance the glare.  Reflected glancing light is more or less 
-> polarized parallel to the surface.  There is a statistical probability 
-> that the glare that affects us in daily life bounces off horizontal 
-> surfaces.  Consequently your lenses are vertically polarized.  The effect 
-> is definitely noticable if you take the lenses off and rotate them 90 
-> degrees. 
 
-> Perhaps you could just tilt your head?  ;-^) 
 
-> Paul Rogers, paulgrogers{at}yahoo.com                       -o) 
  
You misunderstood. I know there's a good reason why the lenses of 
polarizing sunglasses are aligned as they are. But there's no good 
reason why the polarizers in Liquid Crystal Displays shouldn't be 
turned around so that the light from them would pass through polarizing 
sunglasses, instead of being blocked by them. 
  
I have a wristwatch with a LCDisplay. When I wear it on my left wrist, 
I can read it just fine when I'm wearing sunglasses. But, a few months 
ago, I broke that wrist, so I wore my watch on the right one for a 
while. I found that, in order to read it, I had to turn my arm around 
to an unusual angle. Apparently, the makers of the LCD in the watch 
aligned it so it would work with polarizing sunglasses, but they had to 
assume that the watch would be on the usual, i.e. left, wrist. Either 
that, or it works that way just by accident. 
  
The displays in gas pumps should be no problem to align right. 
  
                          dow 
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