Can mirrors multiply light?

Question

if you put a mirror in front of a light bulb, will the amount of light double as if there were two light bulbs? why or why not?

Answer 1

The amount of light will not double, since mirrors only reflect about 80% of light that hits them (absorbing 20%). It would be brighter in the room, though. However, if you had a room full of mirrors on all surfaces, the room would be much brigher than a room full of black surfaces, since the light rays will be reflected rather than being absorbed by the dark color.

Answer 2

Good question.
It would seem at first thought that it would - but, unfortunately, it only directs the light rays.

Think of it like this: If I were to put a light on a table in the center of a room, tha light would spread 360 degrees and light the room pretty much evenly. If I put a mirror behind the light, the part of the room facing the mirror will brighten up - but, again, unfortunately, the part of the room behind the mirror just got darker. In short, you are only taking some of the light from one part of the room and reflecting it into another part of the room - the total light stays about the same.

Answer 3

in case you artwork out the thank you to try this enable me be attentive to...i will desire to circulate into employer with you and build skill plant life out of those mystical "unfavourable skill lamps" in case you encompass a bulb thoroughly with mirrors, the mild would be bouncing from one replicate to the different. After each and every mirrored photograph, the mild beam would be slightly weaker and the version in intensity would be absorbed by the fabric from which the replicate is made up of. this manner of fabric will heat. because of the fact the bulb keeps to emit mild, the temperature of the replicate will advance. The replicate will heat the air around the bulb. So, the substantial result you will see is going to be the non-provide up advance of the temperature of the completed gadget. The warming will proceed until the filament of the bulb will burn outConcentration is the quantity photons/unit area, so what the smarties who've spoke back this question mean is, no, you could no longer advance the style of photons, you're basically making them leap off something (like a ball might), they at the instant are not multiplying in quantity. as a substitute, you're increasing the style of photons interior the area, making it moer concentrated. in fact, do a concept test with countless balls bouncing off a semicircle of partitions. they had all hit on the area of the comparable place, yet there'd nonetheless be the comparable quantity. Oh and nabinkim, there is not any way the mild from a mild bulb is coherent adequate for that. human beings do use mirrors for cooking: a photo voltaic oven may be made by replicate coating a parabolic dish This works because of the fact most of the atoms are above floor state and are inspired to emit a photon by the passing photons. subsequently the term mild Amplification by inspired Emission of Radiation

Answer 4

No because mirrors will only reflect light this is shown when you do a test on a white peice of paper in a dark room. if you reflect the light while on the paper you will see that it will dim on the paper after a short distance like it normally would without the mirror. therfore it only reflects light at the same strenght as it would be.

Answer 5

The answer is no. If the mirrors were perfectly flat and perfectly reflective, the best you could hope for is for the light to remain at the same level. However, in real life there is no perfectly flat mirror (atoms have irregular shapes) and there is no perfectly reflective mirror, there is always some small loss.

Answer 6

Light bouncing off a mirror is not multiplied. Instead, depending on the mirror angles and curvature, you can either increase it's intensity by focusing the light waves together or you can decrease its intensity by scattering the light waves in different directions.

Answer 7

Light is formed by energy particles called photons. Each photon can hold (or represent) discrete leaves of energy depending on their wavelength. (Refer Plank's constant). The mirror surface, depending on the quality of the polishing for the incident light, will reflect back the photon fully. Some photons could be absorbed in the mirror (due to irregularities of the mirror medium) fully. Hence mirror cannot multiply light. It can only reflect it back (with same or less energy).

Answer 8

Multiply, no. Brighten, yes. Reflectiveness of the light onto other colors in a room does in fact give a brighter appearance but the light itself is not being multiplied of copies, simple reflected until it slowly vanishes away after being completely absorbed. Your room should be brighter however!

Answer 9

This is the principle behind the lazer. The trick is to get the light to move in phase. If the "mirror" is translucent, at some frequency it will emit a coherent beam of light. It lazes.

Answer 10

no. the light is just reflected. but, if you use a mirror(s) to focus light and magnify it with a lens, you can concentrate the light and multiply its intensity