Tomassci@kbin.social to Ask Science@kbin.social · 1 year agoOkay, but how actually do mirrors reflect light?message-squaremessage-square6fedilinkarrow-up11arrow-down10file-text
arrow-up11arrow-down1message-squareOkay, but how actually do mirrors reflect light?Tomassci@kbin.social to Ask Science@kbin.social · 1 year agomessage-square6fedilinkfile-text
Light is made of photons, so how do mirrors put the photons on a route that follows the law of reflection?
minus-squaretoasteranimation@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkarrow-up0·edit-21 year agolight is also a wave, and don’t forget, some wavelengths will go right through the mirror and not reflect at all https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave–particle_duality
minus-squareTomassci@kbin.socialOPlinkfedilinkarrow-up0·1 year agoThat is indeed true, but how do you redirect a wave with what is just a bunch of atoms? Do you reradiate it?
minus-squaretoasteranimation@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkarrow-up0·1 year agoNo, the wave is just bouncing off the atoms in the mirror, same as sound would
minus-squareTomassci@kbin.socialOPlinkfedilinkarrow-up1·1 year agoI don’t that’s how it works, after all it’s a different scale and quantum mechanical
light is also a wave, and don’t forget, some wavelengths will go right through the mirror and not reflect at all
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave–particle_duality
That is indeed true, but how do you redirect a wave with what is just a bunch of atoms? Do you reradiate it?
No, the wave is just bouncing off the atoms in the mirror, same as sound would
How does that work?
See Newton’s Laws
I don’t that’s how it works, after all it’s a different scale and quantum mechanical