this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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Okay, but how actually do mirrors reflect light? (kbin.social)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Light is made of photons, so how do mirrors put the photons on a route that follows the law of reflection?

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[–] toasteranimation 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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%E2%80%93particle_duality

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That is indeed true, but how do you redirect a wave with what is just a bunch of atoms? Do you reradiate it?

[–] toasteranimation 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No, the wave is just bouncing off the atoms in the mirror, same as sound would

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

How does that work?

[–] toasteranimation 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

See Newton’s Laws

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I don't that's how it works, after all it's a different scale and quantum mechanical

[–] toasteranimation 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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