At what angle should the axes of two Polaroids be placed so as to reduce the intensity of the incident unpolarized light to

Ok, the question is incomplete buy ill try to answer this in a general way.

Suppose that you have no-polarized light.

When that light hits one polaroid, the light becomes polarized along some line, and has an intensity I0.

Now, when polarized light hits a polaroid which axis is at an angle θ with respect to the polarization of the light, the intensity of the resulting beam is given by the Malus's law:

I(θ) = I0*cos^2(θ)

For example, if the axis of the polaroid is exactly the same as the one of the polarized light, then we have θ = 0°

and:

I(0°) = I0*cos^2(0°) = I0

So the intensity does not change.

Now, knowing the initial intensity, you can find the angle needed to get a given intensity.

For example, if the question was:

"At what angle should the axes of two Polaroids be placed so as to reduce the intensity of the incident unpolarized light to A"

We should solve:

I(θ) = A = I0*cos^2(θ)

(A/i0) = cos^2(θ)

√(A/I0) = cos(θ)

Acos(√(A/I0)) = θ

d. platinum would have the greatest temperature increase because it has the lowest specific heat.