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Sunlight is made up of photons polarized in many directions, so it is derived that sunlight has a 50% chance of passing through a polarizing filter at any angle.

My question is, if you know 50% of your photons are in horizontal polarization and 50% in vertical polarization, a laser beam made up of these photons would have a diagonal polarization? How varying the proportions and angles of polarization of individual photons change the beam's polarization as a whole?

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    $\begingroup$ Your laser beam is in a coherent superposition, so that it makes up diagonal polarisation. Sunlight is a incoherent classical mixture. They are different things. $\endgroup$
    – naturallyInconsistent
    Commented Jun 14 at 5:29
  • $\begingroup$ 50:50 can also be circular or elliptical polarization $\endgroup$
    – José Andrade
    Commented Jun 14 at 17:21

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