The Magic of Mirrors

This post is about reflection. Ha! There's double meaning there! Reflection on the year because these are from homecoming week and reflection literally! Reflection occurs when light bounces back from a surface. We see objects in mirrors and other reflective surfaces because light bounces off of the object and into our eyes. Reflective surfaces are not the only things that light bounces off of. We are able to see because light bounces off of all objects and into our eyes. We perceive color because certain wavelengths of light are absorbed and reflected by materials. Light that is absorbed is not seen, while light that is reflected is seen. White is all of the colors of light (red, green, and blue) being reflected back, while black occurs when all of the colors of light are absorbed, the absence of light. Now that I have explained a little about how we see, let's get back to the pictures. Not all of these pictures show totally reflective surfaces, i.e. the last picture with images of Gavin, me, and Jon on Gavin's tinted car window. We are actually able to see inside the car, as it legally should be, therefore all of the light is not reflected back from the window, and neither is it fully absorbed. Clear glass doesn't reflect or absorb color, light simply passes through, but because this window is tinted, some but not all of the light is reflected, which is why we can basically see ourselves, or rather, our images. And what's also interesting is the fact that our images are not merely on top of the reflective surface as I and many others previously thought, our images are actually the same distance away from the reflective surface as we are, but BEHIND it. And another maybe even more fascinating thing we learned about mirrors is the fact that the distance between an object and a mirror does not affect the amount of the object that is reflected back. This is not obvious in these pictures, but is when you try it out for yourself. The only thing which makes it appear as though the size of the image is changing is your angle from it and the amount of other objects you are able to see when you move toward or away from the mirror.

Reflections are truly fascinating and make many optical illusions possible. Before this last section I never realized how magical mirrors really are. Thanks, Physics! :)