Most likely, today there is not a single house wherethere would be no mirror. It has become so firmly established in our life that it is difficult for a person to manage without him. What is this item, how does the image reflect? And if you put two mirrors in front of each other? This amazing subject has become central in many fairy tales. About him there is enough will. And what does science say about the mirror?
A bit of history
Most modern mirrors areglass with a dusting. As a coating, a thin metal layer is applied on the reverse side of the glass. Literally a thousand years ago, mirrors were carefully polished copper or bronze disks. But not everyone could afford a mirror. It cost a lot of money. Therefore, poor people were forced to consider their reflection in the water. And mirrors that show a man in full growth are generally relatively young inventions. He is about 400 years old.
Зеркало людей удивляло тем более, когда они могли to see the reflection of a mirror in a mirror — it seemed to them to be something magical. After all, the image is not the truth, but a kind of its reflection, a kind of illusion. It turns out, we can simultaneously see the truth and illusion. It is not surprising that people attributed many magical properties to this item and were even afraid of it.
The very first mirrors made of platinum(surprisingly, this metal was not once appreciated at all) gold or tin. Scientists have discovered mirrors made back in the Bronze Age. But the mirror that we can see today began its history after Europe was able to master the technology of glass blowing.
Scientific view
From the point of view of the science of physics, the reflection of a mirror inA mirror is a multiplied effect of the same reflection. The more such mirrors installed opposite each other, the greater the illusion of fullness with the same image arises. This effect is often used in amusement rides. For example, in the Disney Park there is a so-called endless hall. There, two mirrors were installed opposite each other, and they repeated this effect many times.
The resulting mirror reflection in the mirror,multiplied by a relatively infinite number of times, it has become one of the most popular attractions. Such attractions have long entered the entertainment industry. At the beginning of the 20th century, an attraction called the Palace of Illusions appeared at an international exhibition in Paris. He enjoyed immense popularity. The principle of its creation is the reflection of mirrors in mirrors installed in a row, the size of a full human height, in a huge pavilion. People had the impression that they were in a huge crowd.
Law of reflection
Принцип действия любого зеркала основан на законе propagation and reflection in space of light rays. This law is the main one in optics: the angle of incidence will be the same (equal) to the angle of reflection. It is like a falling ball. If you throw it vertically down towards the floor, it will also bounce vertically up. If you throw him at an angle, he will bounce at an angle equal to the angle of incidence. Rays of light from the surface are reflected in the same way. At the same time, the smoother and smoother the surface, the more perfect this law works. According to this law, the reflection works in a flat mirror, and the more perfect its surface, the better the reflection.
But if we are dealing with frosted surfaces or rough, then the rays scattered chaotically.
Mirrors can reflect light.What we see, all reflected objects, is due to the rays that are similar to the sun. If there is no light, then nothing is visible in the mirror. When light rays fall on an object or on any living creature, they are reflected and carry information about the object. Thus, the reflection of a person in a mirror is the idea of an object with all its characteristics (color, size, distance, etc.) formed on the retina of his eye and transmitted to the brain.
Types of mirror surfaces
Mirrors are flat and spherical, which, inturn can be concave and convex. Today there are already smart mirrors: a kind of media carrier designed to demonstrate the target audience. The principle of its work is the following: when a person approaches, the mirror as if comes to life and begins to show video. And this video was not chosen by chance. A system is installed in the mirror that recognizes and processes the resulting image of a person. She quickly determines his gender, age, emotional mood. Thus, the system in the mirror picks up a demo that could potentially interest a person. It works in 85 cases out of 100! But scientists do not stop at this and want to achieve an accuracy of 98%.
Spherical mirror surfaces
На чём основана работа сферического зеркала, или, How else is it called a curve - mirrors with convex and concave surfaces? Such mirrors differ from usual ones in that they distort the image. Convex mirror surfaces make it possible to see more objects than flat ones. But at the same time all these objects seem smaller in size. Such mirrors are installed in cars. Then the driver is able to see the image on the left and on the right.
The concave curved mirror focuses the resultingpicture. In this case, you can see the reflected object as detailed as possible. A simple example: these mirrors are often used for shaving and in medicine. The image of an object in such mirrors is collected from images of many different and individual points of this object. To construct an image of an object in a concave mirror, it will suffice to construct an image of its extreme two points. Images of the remaining points will be located between them.
Translucency
There is another kind of mirrors thattranslucent surfaces. They are so arranged that one side is like an ordinary mirror, and the other is half transparent. From this transparent side, you can observe the view of the mirror, but from the usual one you can not see anything except the reflection. Such mirrors can often be seen in crime films, when the police are investigating and interrogating the suspect, but on the other hand they are watching or bringing witnesses to their identification, but in such a way that they cannot be seen.
Myth of infinity
It is believed that by creating a mirrorcorridor, you can reach the infinity of the light beam in the mirrors. Superstitious people who believe in divination often use this ritual. But science has long proved that this is impossible. Interestingly, the reflection of light from a mirror is never complete, at 100%. For this you need a perfect, smooth, 100% smooth surface. And it may be approximately 98-99%. There are always some errors. Therefore, girls, guessing in such mirror corridors by candlelight, risk, at the most, simply entering a certain psychological state that can negatively affect them.
If you put two mirrors in front of each other, andlight a candle between them, then many lights will be visible, arranged in a row. Question: how many lights can you count? At first glance, this is an infinite amount. After all, it seems there is no end to this series. But if we carry out certain mathematical calculations, we will see that even with mirrors having 99% reflection, after about 70 cycles the light will become two times weaker. After 140 reflections, it will weaken two more times. Each time the rays of light grow dim and change color. Thus, the moment will come when the light goes out at all.
So is infinity possible?
Infinite reflection of a ray from a mirror is possible.only with absolutely perfect mirrors, set strictly parallel. But is it possible to achieve such an absoluteness, when nothing in the material world is absolute and ideal? If this is possible, it is only from the point of view of the religious consciousness, where absolute perfection is God, the Creator of everything omnipresent.
Due to the lack of a perfect surfacemirrors and their perfect parallelism to each other, a series of reflections will bend, and the image will disappear, as if around the corner. If we also take into account the fact that a person looking at this reflection, when there are two mirrors, and he also has a candle between them, will not stand strictly parallel either, then the visible row of candles will disappear beyond the frame of the mirror rather quickly.
Multiple reflection
At school, students learn to build imagesobject using the laws of reflection. By the law of reflection of light in a mirror, the object and its mirror image are symmetrical. Studying the construction of images using a system of two or more mirrors, students receive as a result of the effect of multiple reflections.
If to add a single flat mirrorthe second is located at a right angle to the first, then there will be not two reflections in the mirror, but three (they are usually designated S1, S2 and S3). The rule is triggered: an image that appears in one mirror is reflected in the second, then this first is reflected in the other, and again. The new, S2, will be reflected in the first, creating the third image. All reflections will be the same.
Symmetry
The question arises:Why are reflections symmetrical in the mirror? The answer is given by geometric science, and in close connection with psychology. What for us is the bottom and the top, for the mirror changes places. The mirror as it turns inside out what is in front of it. But surprisingly, as a result, the floor, walls, ceiling and everything else in the reflection look the same as in reality.
How does a person perceive a reflection in a mirror?
Man sees through the light.Its quanta (photons) have the properties of waves and particles. Based on the theory of primary and secondary light sources, photons of a light beam falling on an opaque object are absorbed by atoms on its surface. Excited atoms immediately return the energy they have absorbed. Secondary photons are radiated uniformly in all directions. Rough and dull surfaces give a diffuse reflection.
If it is a mirror surface (or similar),then the particles emitting light are ordered, the light shows wave characteristics. Secondary waves are compensated in all directions, in addition to the fact that they are subject to the law, according to which the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.
The photons seem to spring elastically away from the mirror.Their trajectories start from objects that seem to be located behind him. It is them and sees the human eye, looking in the mirror. The world behind the mirror is different from the real. To read the text there, you need to start from right to left, and the hands of the clock go in the opposite direction. The double in the mirror raises the left hand when the person standing in front of the mirror is the right.
The reflections in the mirror will be different for people who are simultaneously looking into it, but at different distances and in different positions.
The best mirrors in antiquity were consideredthose made from polished silver carefully. Today, a layer of metal is applied on the back of the glass. It is protected from damage by several layers of paint. Instead of silver, in order to save money, an aluminum layer is often applied (the reflection coefficient is approximately 90%). A person’s eyes barely notice the difference between silver and aluminum.
