Why does a mirror reflect an image?

Question

I don't really understand why mirrors reflect images?

Answer 1

Light can move in a few ways, all of which are rays. Rays are striaght lines, and light can never curve (unless you are in a black hole, if that's the case....too bad for you) but it can be REFLECTED or REFRACTED.

Reflection is when a light ray bounces off of a surface and does so in predictable angles. On a flat surface, the light relflects at an angle equal to that which struck the surface. This is how a flat, or plane, mirror works (bathroom cabinet, dresser). A rounded surface can magnify and distort an image by reflecting the light rays at different angles over its entire surface. The law of reflection still holds true, but since the surface is irregular, the image reflected is not true to life (fun house mirrors, magnifying mirror for make-up or shaving).

REFRACTION is the bending of light as it changes mediums and cause changes to images as well, such as when looking into an aquarium tank. I know you didn't ask about this, but call it a bonus.

Answer 2

The reason that a mirror can reflect an image has to do with its atomic properties. All objects can either (1) absorb, (2) reflect, or (3) non-interact with light. If an object absorbs all light shined on it, it will appear completely black. The reason different object has different colors has to do with the fact that an object will absorb some frequencies of light but reflect others. So a red apple absorbs all frequencies of light except the red frequency which is reflected out.

So a mirror happens to have the property of reflecting all light shining onto its surface (of course no mirror is 100% reflective, some light may get absorbed or allowed to pass through). But in addition to reflecting all light, the mirror being very flat, also reflects the light in such a way that the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incident. That's just a fancy way of saying that the light is not diffused by the mirror and reflected in all different directions. This preserves the image contained in the light, so that you can still see it.

Answer 3

Let’s take a minute to think about what exactly a mirror does. A mirror reflect back an image of whatever is in front of it. The reflected image is made up of particles of light called photons.

There are mirrors all around us: windows, puddles, a shiny new car, a silver tea pot, etc. To better understand how a mirror works, think about what all of these things have in common. The most important thing you’ll notice is that all these things are very smooth. The other things you will find is that a shiny metal surface, such as a polished silver tea pot, makes a better mirror than a glass window.

When a photon of light hits a mirror it cause the electrons in the atom to vibrate and give off and identical photon of light. Metals work better as mirrors because they have many electrons shared by all the metal atoms, but the atoms in glass don’t share their electrons very well with their neighbors. That’s also why metals are used in wires to conduct electricity.

Mirrors need to be smooth so that the light is reflected goes straight back to where it came from, instead of being scattered in a different direction.

Most mirrors in our everyday life have three layers. The bottom layer is a dark, protective layer. The middle layer, the most important part, is made of a metal, usually aluminum (just like soda pop cans). The top layer is glass, because its clear and it protects the smooth aluminum layer.

Answer 4

My theory: Because a mirror is a dimensional distortion. We think it reflects an image. True it reflects light, but it bounces it in our eyes as it is spread through out. Our eyes just happen to see a limited range of images. Sometimes an anomaly happens and we see something else in a form of ghosts as images are reflected on the mirror everywhere. Ever enter a dark room where a mirror is present and the room feels very big? Enter the same room without a mirror and it feels stuffy. The theory that it bends light is not true. You can't bend light. Just ask Albert Einstein. If you can bend light, then you can take a short cut to where the light is going and travel in time. Can you travel in time?

Answer 5

Reflected light energy bounces off of a smooth surface.

I believe that light travels by twisting electrons; one atom to the next; one after another; until eventually they twist the electrons located in our rods and cones in our eyes. Everything light strikes reflects off of the object; the twisting electrons (they twist because they are already spinning around nucleai of atoms; the twisting I am thinking of is involved in the transferrence of light energy; or the addition of faster rotations and the addition of electrons (photons); ...the way the energy is reflected results in the change and the way we see the light.

We see more of a reflection of light than the actual glass of the mirror because the back of the glass is "silvered" or made shiny. You can create a simplified mirror by placing a dark surface behind glass. That will prevent light from entering the back of the glass and the front of the glass will appear more reflective.

There is nothing to see in the glass except the light coming into it from the opposite angle from which you are viewing it; because it is highly reflective.

Below is info from wikipedia which I have not read yet.

Specular reflection is the perfect, mirror-like reflection of light (or sometimes other kinds of wave) from a surface, in which light from a single incoming direction is reflected into a single outgoing direction. Such behaviour is described by the law of reflection, which states that the direction of outgoing reflected light and the direction of incoming light make the same angle with respect to the surface normal; this is commonly stated as θi = θr.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specular_reflection

Answer 6

The laws of reflection apply to diffuse reflection. The irregular surface can be considered to be made up of a large number of small planar reflecting surfaces positioned by polishing or machining at slightly different angles. Indirect (or diffuse) lighting produces soft shadows. The angle of incidence is the angle between the incident ray and the normal. The angle of reflection is the angle between the normal and the reflected ray. THus when you stand in front of a mirror your image is captured by light and projected to you.

Answer 7

Cause they are shiny,light rays bounce off of them(reflect)causing an image. Thus the shinier a object the greater the light reflects and the clearer the image.

Answer 8

a mirror is a highly reflective polished surface that reflects the different colors of light in front of it.
white light, or regular light, is a mixture of all colors of light. for example, a yellow candy absorbs blue and red light, but reflects the yellow. the yellow is what you see, and is what is reflected off of a mirror enabling it to be seen.

Answer 9

When light falls on all objects it reflects back when this reflection falls on a smooth surface we can see that image all surfaces can reproduce image on rough surfaces it is not clear

Answer 10

it has a highly polished surface behind the glass, which reflects the light back to u, thats how u see images...