Questions tagged [reflection]
This tag is for questions relating to reflection, the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two different media so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. A familiar example of reflection comes from water waves; as the waves travel they reflect off objects that are floating in the water, and also reflect off the walls of the container holding the water.
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Why are mirror images flipped horizontally but not vertically?
Why is it that when you look in the mirror left and right directions appear flipped, but not the up and down?
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Why does a mirror split my laser beam?
Last night my daughter was asking why a mirror "always does that" (referring to reflecting a spot of light). To help her figure it out, I grabbed my green laser pointer so she could see the light ...
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Why does a yellow object turn white under a yellow light? Shouldn't it turn yellow instead?
Recently I was eating a yellow rice for lunch in a restaurant with only yellow lights. But the rice looked white! I was intrigued by this because I always thought it should look yellow since the ...
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Why does my beveled mirror make triplicate "ghosts"?
Here is a picture of my power adapter. You can see in has one green LED lit when charging.
Now here is a picture of my mirror with beveled edges. When I view the power adapter in the mirror, I see ...
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Why does soaking a fabric make it more transparent?
It's a well-known fact that when one soaks a thin piece of fabric, it will often become more transparent than it was before.
What is the reason behind this? I can't put glass behind the fabric and ...
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Why does a window become a mirror at night?
In day, when you look in the room through the window out, you can clearly see what happens outside. At night when it's dark outside but there's light inside you can look in the window but it becomes a ...
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Why can't we see images reflected on a piece of paper?
Why can't you see a reflected image on a piece of paper? Say you put a pen in front of the paper, even when light rays are coming from other sources, hitting the pen, reflecting back, and hitting the ...
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Phase shift of 180 degrees of transversal wave on reflection from denser medium
Can anyone please provide an intuitive explanation of why phase shift of 180 degrees occurs in the Electric Field of a EM wave, when reflected from an optically denser medium?
I tried searching for ...
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What wavelengths of light does a banana reflect?
I do know that there are at least two types of yellow light: a light of a single wavelength of ~580 nm and a combination of green light and red light. (Technically, there could be more yellow light.) ...
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Why are gold mirrors yellow?
Why are golden mirrors yellow?
Do they add a yellow component to the spectrum or absorb non-yellow components?
If they absorb, then why are they used in telescopes being imperfect?
If they add a ...
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What is the difference between a white object and a mirror?
I was taught that something which reflects all the colors of light is white. The function of a mirror is the same, it also reflects all light. What's the difference?
Update:
But what if the white ...
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How can an object absorb so many wavelengths, if their energies must match an energy level transition of an electron?
I believe I have a misunderstanding of some principles, but I have not, even through quite a bit of research, been able to understand this problem.
My current understanding of transmission, ...
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How are classical optics phenomena explained in QED (Snell's law)?
How is the following classical optics phenomenon explained in quantum electrodynamics?
Reflection and Refraction
Are they simply due to photons being absorbed and re-emitted? How do we get to Snell'...
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What causes this pattern of sunlight reflected off a table leg?
My friend noticed an interference-like pattern around the table leg. However, we do know that interference patterns of sunlight produces rainbow colours. What seems to be happening here?
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Why don't we hear sound reflecting from buildings, mirrors, etcetera?
We can see buildings, doors, cars etc. as light falls on it gets reflected to us.
but why doesn't the same thing happen with sound? I mean why don't we hear sound reflecting that much?
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