All Questions
Tagged with reflection metals
22
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Fresnel Equations, Refraction, and Metals
I'm trying to make sense of how the fresnel equations apply to metals. Here are a few of the things I believe I understand:
All reflections of light occur specularly. When an object appears to ...
- 203
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Fresnel Equations and an Opaque Surface?
I'm trying to make sense of what actually happens to light when it interacts with an opaque surface.
The fresnel equations give us the proportion of light which is reflected off the surface of a ...
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Do mirrors (with metal surfaces) show TIR (Total Internal Reflection)?
[Not a duplicate! Also, the answer to a similar question was unsatisfactory]
I was digging into why we don't use mirrors in place of fibre optics cables. Majorly, the answers were as follows:
It's ...
- 153
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Why does gold only glow red after flame is removed?
I was at a jewelry workshop today and saw somebody place a gold ring under an intense flame. Weirdly, the ring looked normal when underneath the flame, but glowed "red-hot" as soon as the ...
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Why does (oxidized) aluminum have a diffuse optical appearance?
Unoxidized aluminum has a shiny appearance like typical metals. However in air aluminum rapidly oxidizes, giving it a more diffuse appearance (or bidirectional reflectance distribution function). ...
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The relation between surface charge density to wave reflection
We know from Guass law that if an electric field hit perpendicular from dielectric medium to a metal, then a charge density develops on the surface.
$D_{in} - D_{hit} = \sigma$
Where in metal the Din=...
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Can total internal reflection (TIR) occur in metals?
Is it possible to get Total Internal Reflection (TIR) when a light beam hits a metallic surface of complex index $\tilde{n}=n_r+n_ii$? If not, is there a way where a light beam can hit a metallic ...
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Why silver reflectivity decreases at around 350
This picture is from the site:https://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/gold-color-relativity/
I was wondering why the reflectivitiy of silver goes to 0 at around 350 nm. I understand why for gold ...
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What colour are metals? [duplicate]
I know that glass is actually green in that mirrors will always leave a green tint. This is because, although it's a small margin, green is the most absorbed wavelength for glass. Following on from ...
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Why is silver such a good reflector of visible light?
In everyday mirrors, silver is used on the back of glass as a reflector (because it is highly efficient in reflecting visible light). But what are the characteristic properties that make silver a ...
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Reflectance and Reflectance Color of Metals
I do not understand the layman's physics behind the reflectance curve of a metal based on the complex index of refraction. Figure 24 from Background: Physics and Math of Shading by Naty Hoffman graphs ...
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Why is crystalline graphite black yet shiny?
I am unable to find images of pure crystalline graphite with high confidence, but based on various sources I believe that it should actually be both black and shiny, in the sense that it reflects much ...
- 2,887
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Is the specular reflection on a polished gold sphere white or gold in colour?
My understanding is that all specular reflection is due to Fresnel reflection at the interface which is a broadband effect.
A classic example might be a white reflection on a polished ball (e.g. ...
- 133
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Faraday cages and what constitutes the minimum number of atoms to build an optical mirror
I recently asked this question: What is the minimum number of metal atoms necessary to make a mirror?
However it seems I did not make myself clear enough about what I was looking for, even though the ...
- 3,236
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Why electricity does not seem to alter metal mirrors reflection? [closed]
If individual electrons absorb and reflect photons, and if those electrons happen to be on a conduction band which is most probable as the outer electrons have a greater probability of intercepting ...
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