how does a mirror work?

Answer 1

Most mirrors consist of a flat surface with an electrically conducting layer on or near the surface. Light is an (oscillating) electromagentic wave. The electric field causes the conduction electrons to move so as to short out (cancel) the electric field (not unlike puting a wire across the terminals of an outlet). The resultant oscillating current produces its own electromagnetic wave of the same amplitude but out of phase of the incoming wave. That's the reflected light.

Answer 2

Without further details the question is trivial.
Obviously a mirror must have a surface which reflects most of the light that falls on it. In order that a more or less clear image is formed the surface must also be reasonably smooth.Usually mirrors have plane, concave or convex surface, plain mirrors being the most common.
The law of reflection of light states that the incident ray and the reflected ray make equal angles with the normal to the surface and are on the opposite sides of the normal.
To find the position of the image, consider each or as many points of the object as may be necessary and draw two rays from each of these points onto the mirror Draw the reflected rays according to the law of reflection. The point where these two rays intersect, actually or virtually i.e. by extending the rays as necessary, is the position of the image of the point on the object from which the rays started.

Answer 3

In a plane mirror, a parallel beam of light changes its direction as a whole, while still remaining parallel; the images formed by a plane mirror are virtual images, of the same size as the original object (see mirror image). There are also concave mirrors, where a parallel beam of light becomes a convergent beam, whose rays intersect in the focus of the mirror. Finally, there are convex mirrors, where a parallel beam becomes divergent, with the rays appearing to diverge from a common intersection "behind" the mirror. Spherical concave and convex mirrors do not focus parallel rays to a single point due to spherical aberration. (The ideal of focusing to a point is a commonly-used approximation, however.) Parabolic reflectors resolve this, allowing incoming parallel rays (for example, light from a distant star) to be focused to a small spot; almost an ideal point.

Most modern mirrors consist of a thin layer of aluminium deposited on a sheet of glass. They are back silvered, where the reflecting surface is viewed through the glass sheet; this makes the mirror durable, but lowers the image quality of the mirror due to extraneous reflections from the front surface of the glass.

Answer 4

"White" light is the whole of the electromagnetic spectrum, and when it hits, lets say a red object, the light reflected is the light you see, the rest is absorbed. That light reflecting off of whatever is placed in front of a mirror is refracted back, like shining a reuglar white light off of a mirror. The Sun, yes is yellow, but that's from the heat of the Sun. The light eminating it is every color in the spectrum, so you can see any color outside in the light. Same with say, a flashlight. The main reflected colors are red orange yellow green blue indigo and violet, but a blend of these colors creates different colors. Red and blue makes the violet you see, and that blended with other colors makes different colors. I hope that I helped!

Answer 5

A mirror works by reflecting light because it is an illuminated object. When visible light passes through the glass, the light is bent slightly, and is reflected off the shiny substance behind the glass, like aluminum. When the visible light is reflected to your eye, it passes through the cornea, between the iris muscle, and through the dark pupil (a hole). The image then travels through the lens behind your pupil and iris, and is turned upside-down. It then travels to the rods and cones on the retina muscle. The image is then reflected to your blind spot where no rods and cones are present to travel through the optic nerve to your brain where the the image is turned right-side-up again.

Answer 6

The math is complex but essentially some elements and molecules cause light waves to bend completely around them so that the path of the light returns to where it came from. I remember finding this out in a chemistry course I took back in the 1960s.

Answer 7

some substances like steel and silver have special properties of reflects light rays that come towards them.they don't absorb light rays rather they reflect them as they came and the way they came.so we see the reflected lights

Answer 8

maybe some of the smart people that answered your q/ before me will know they look like they have smart answers (lol)