this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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Okay, but how actually do mirrors reflect light? (kbin.social)
submitted 1 year ago by Tomassci@kbin.social to c/askscience@kbin.social
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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@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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

[–] Tomassci@kbin.social 1 points 1 year 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@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] Tomassci@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How does that work?

[–] toasteranimation@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

See Newton’s Laws

[–] Tomassci@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

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