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There is no reason to use bra-ket notation in an article on classical electromagnetism. I realize that bra-ket notation has significant utility in many situations, just not here. To someone trying to understand linear polarization, <X| is just an additional level of complexity. Selain03 (talk) 23:07, 25 January 2009 (UTC)Reply

How does one reconcile linear polarization with the fact that a singular photon (always circularly polarized either parallel or anti-parallel to its direction of motion) consists of the electric and magnetic field oscillating in quadrature about a common axis?

https://web.archive.org/web/20161024110935if_/http://staff.washington.edu/bradleyb/spiralsynth/fig3.1.gif

https://i.imgur.com/zofvpkI.png

A sinusoid is a circular function. You'll note the peak amplitude of the sinusoid is analogous to the radius of the circle, the peak-to-peak amplitude is analogous to the diameter of the circle, and the frequency of the sinusoid is analogous to the rotational rate of the circle. You'll further note the circumference of the circle is equal to 2 pi radians, and the wavelength of a sinusoid is equal to 2 pi radians, so the wavelength of the sinusoid is analogous to the circumference of the circle.

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around exactly how linear polarization of a macroscopic electromagnetic wave (the tensor product of many singular circularly polarized photons) comes about. 98.39.240.162 (talk) 02:27, 27 December 2021 (UTC)Reply