Core finding

2 recall and use Malus’s law (…) to calculate the intensity of a… is the most frequently assessed subtopic in Polarisation, with 7 topic questions and 7 marks across 7 papers. 1 understand that polarisation is a phenomenon associated… follows with 6 topic questions and 6 marks. The topic contains 2 subtopics, 13 topic questions and 13 marks in total. Rows count only the parts tagged to that subtopic, keep the same colour in both charts and repeat paper count, tagged marks and year range in the native table.

Topic question count and mark distribution

Subtopics are on the vertical axis and sorted from highest to lowest. Only the parts whose knowledge graph matches a subtopic are counted for it, and percentages are each row's share of the tagged total in that chart. A part tagged to several subtopics is counted in each bar, so the bars are not a partition of the topic total.

Questions by subtopic

question items

2 recall and use Malus’s law (

I = I_{0} cos^{2} θ

) to calculate the intensity of a plane-polarised electromagnetic wave after transmission through a polarising filter or a series of polarising filters (calculation of the effect of a polarising filter on the intensity of an unpolarised wave is not required) 7 papers

753.8%

1 understand that polarisation is a phenomenon associated with transverse waves 6 papers

646.2%

Marks by subtopic

marks

2 recall and use Malus’s law (

I = I_{0} cos^{2} θ

) to calculate the intensity of a plane-polarised electromagnetic wave after transmission through a polarising filter or a series of polarising filters (calculation of the effect of a polarising filter on the intensity of an unpolarised wave is not required) 7 papers

753.8%

1 understand that polarisation is a phenomenon associated with transverse waves 6 papers

646.2%

Subtopic comparison matrix

Curriculum order is by syllabus number, then alphabetically. Every row links to the matching past-paper question list.

Subtopic	Topic questions	Papers	Marks	Years
1 understand that polarisation is a phenomenon associated with transverse waves	6	6	6	2025	Open topic questions
2 recall and use Malus’s law ( $I = I_{0} cos^{2} θ$ ) to calculate the intensity of a plane-polarised electromagnetic wave after transmission through a polarising filter or a series of polarising filters (calculation of the effect of a polarising filter on the intensity of an unpolarised wave is not required)	7	7	7	2025–2026	Open topic questions

Browse every topic question

1 understand that polarisation is a phenomenon associated with transverse waves 6 question items · 6 papers 6 marks · 2025 2 recall and use Malus’s law ( $I = I_{0} cos^{2} θ$ ) to calculate the intensity of a plane-polarised electromagnetic wave after transmission through a polarising filter or a series of polarising filters (calculation of the effect of a polarising filter on the intensity of an unpolarised wave is not required) 7 question items · 7 papers 7 marks · 2025–2026

Topic question rules and edge cases

How many subtopics does Polarisation contain?: This page lists 2 subtopics tagged to the current syllabus. They are ordered by syllabus number, then alphabetically, and each row opens a page of matching past-paper questions.
How are the subtopic question and mark totals calculated?: A multiple-choice question contributes one item and its marks to every subtopic it is tagged with. A structured question contributes one item per tagged part, and that part’s marks; untagged parts of the same question are not counted here. A part tagged to several subtopics therefore appears under each of them.
Why do some subtopics have no numbered prefix?: Practical-skills statements and some syllabus bullets are unnumbered. Numbered statements come first; unnumbered statements and ties are sorted alphabetically.
Is the LaTeX rendered without JavaScript?: Yes. Subtopics that contain formulas are converted to static KaTeX HTML during the build, and the KaTeX stylesheet is served from the same site.

9702 P1 Polarisation Topic Questions