Why do mirrors show reflections?

Question

I think it's pretty cool such an object can reflect exact images in color and shades. The same goes with water; you can see your own relfection when you look into a pond of water. How does this work? I know it has something to do with the way light is refracted against the surface, but how does light know what is in front of it? It's not like light can see in front of itself like people. If we're looking at a mirror and the light comes from behind us how is it we can still see our own image with no distortion if the light is behind us?

Answer 1

We see objects in a mirror, because a mirror, when hit by particles of light called photons, reflects the photons back to us and some reach, and enter, our eyes. Photons that hit a rough surface will bounce off of the surface in a haphazard manner, while those that hit a smooth surface, such as a mirror, only bounce off of the surface at the same angle at which they hit the object. The scientific term for this phenomenon is reflection.

Not all smooth surfaces reflect photons back to us, even though, technically, they should bounce back at the same angle at which they hit the surface. This exception to the rule results, because some smooth surfaces absorb the light particles hitting them, making it impossible for them to bounce back.

Another apparent exception to this rule is that, although our bodies are rough, uneven surfaces, off of which light bounces at random angles, our images reflect off of a mirror. The reason for this apparent contradiction is simply that when we stand in front of a mirror, some, but not all, of the light particles bouncing off of us will hit the smooth surface of the mirror. The ones that do reflect our images back to our eyes at exactly the same angle at which they hit the mirror.

In other words, photons that bounce off of any part of our bodies and hit the mirror reflect back to our eyes from only one place on the mirror, and at only one angle. It follows that each point on our bodies that reflects back to our eyes from one point on the mirror produces an image in the mirror. All of the images together make up our reflections, like it or not. And remember that mirrors don't lie!

Answer 2

The human eye is usually only able to respond to light with a wavelength from about 400-700nm, which is subsequently deemed 'visible light.' This goes to say that there is an immense amount of electromagnetic radiation going around, but we are only able to perceive a very small amout of it with our eyes.
I'm not sure but I think what you're asking is how smooth surfaces are able to produce a clear image when we look at them, and how the object 'knows' it is being watched.
First of all, all things that are not completely pitch dark will reflect some sort of light--meaning if we can see it, it's probably reflecting light, either from the Sun or some other light source. This light reflected from objects goes in all directions because the surfaces of the objects often are not smooth; the paths of reflected light can not be predicted. This is why you don't see your reflection, say, on a piece of paper.
This isn't the case with smooth surfaces as, they allow for a large majority of the photons hitting the surface to be reflected in almost a uniform, predictable fashion.
So while if you look in the mirror at some object that does not have a smooth surface, the path of light will go from the light source to bounce off the object. The light that just so happens to bounce in the direction of your mirror will then reflect off of your mirror in line with your eyes which perceive this image of the object in the mirror.

Answer 3

To understand mirrors, we must first understand light. Light rays really are made up of little energy packages or particles known as photons, which react in different ways when they encounter certain objects. Photons might pass through an object such as a lens, become absorbed or partially absorbed by objects such as leaves on trees, or be reflected off non-transparent surfaces.

When light is reflected off most non-smooth surfaces, it becomes scattered. Because of this scattered reflection of light, the object can be seen. Objects are seen either because they reflect light or because they themselves emit light. As an example, we see the stars and the sun because they emit light and the moon because it reflects light.

Light rays that have encountered an object (your face, as an example) travel to and are reflected uniformly off the ultra smooth plane of a mirror in predictable, not irregular angles.

Because the mirror’s surface is smooth and not irregular, a different type of reflection is created. You then see a “virtual” image of your face that appears to be somewhere within the mirror where it really isn’t.

Answer 4

"It's not like light can see in front of itself like people."

Actually, it kind of does. If you were to ride on a light beam, you would be at your destination and at your starting point at the same time. This doesn't mean that light travels at infinite speed. It just means that time slows down for you when you are traveling at very high speeds. So, according to light, the starting point and the ending point are all that matter, and the path taken between the two is irrelevant (although the path with the highest probability of being taken is the one that takes the least time).

And anyway to get back to your question, light reflects off of everything that isn't pitch black. A mirror is just a really smooth surface, so it reflects back a clear image.

Answer 5

The light reflecting off your body reflects off the mirror and you can see that with your eyes.

Answer 6

type in "how do mirrors work" in google and ull get loads of crap