Abstract
A theory of the Kerr effect in flexible polymers is presented, which relates the electro‐optical birefringence to details of the polymer structure. Previous interpretations of the data are criticized. It is shown in particular that the Kerr effect should be quite sensitive to rotational hindering in the polymer molecule. The theory is applied to several model polymers and order‐of‐magnitude agreement with data for polyvinyl halides is obtained.