where does the light go in a room of mirrors when the light source is switched off?
470750
Ernie... I love this question..  it rocks.\n\nThe answer, however, is going to be just a little dissappointing.\n\nAs I'm sure you know, all light is both a particle and a wave; it is a form of nearly pure energy.  As we know from theoretical physics, energy can never be created, nor can it be destroyed.  It just changes forms.  According to the third law of thermodynamics, energy always goes from higher to lower forms when left on its own, the lowest form of energy often being considered to be heat.  And that's where your wandering, amazing laserlight goes, it turns to heat.  \n\nWhy?\n\nBecause your room of mirrors is completely imperfect.  Your mirrors are dismally inefficient reflectors of light, and the room is full of air.  Household mirrors actually reflect less than 25% of the light energy that shines on them back to you.  Lab quality mirrors made for laser work are, I believe, in the high 80% to low 90% reflectivity efficiency range.  Every time your beam hits a mirror surface and bounces off, it looses more of its energy to heat..  just as it does as it passes thrugh every atom and molicule that makes up the air in the room as well.  Your laser might make it one or two 'miles' of beam length in the room before it is bouncing around.. which would make for thousands of beams.  But, since light travels at 186,000 miles per second, your two mile beam lasts 1/93,000th of a second after you turn the power off before it's gone.  So, it DOES keep going.. but not long enough for you to percieve it.\n\nSo, IF you had perfect mirrors, IN a perfect sphere (remember; you couldn't have any corners!) a COMPLETE vacium inside it with NO particles of dust of ANY kind, and a way to fire the beam into the amazing sphere without leaving any void for energy to escape...  your theory would work, if all that were PERFECT.  But; the biggest catch would be; you could never know if it were working!  Because to find out; you would have to have a void in the sphere to see or measure it...  and measuring any energy source draws energy from it.. so, there goes your light again.\n\nSo, that's why, but it's still a great question.  Theoretical Physics is full of stuff like that...  and thinking about it will turn your brain into silly putty for days.  Keep 'em coming, Ernie..  you've got a great future if you keep your mind working like that.
1101885
This is a perfect question for the section called 'corporations'.\n\nThe answer is 'NO'. Even though you leave the light switch on, the burned out bulb breaks the circuit and uses no electricity.
793532
Good question!  However, 1-way mirrors are not really 1-way: they let as much light out as they do in!  They depend on the fact that the "invisible" side is less well illuminated than the "visible" side.
258869
In a dark(ened) room.\nUse a smal lamp. Move it up and down. Choose one pupil and let the other ones see how the length of his shadow changes with the altitude of the lamp.
548003
What you see in a mirror depends on how the light bounces off the mirror and into your eyes. When light hits a mirror, it bounces off in the same way that a ball would bounce off the mirror. If you threw a ball straight at a flat mirror, it would bounce straight back. If the mirror was curved so that the ball struck the surface at an angle, it would bounce away at an angle. \n\nWhen you look into an ordinary flat mirror, the image of your face is right side up: Your hair is on top of your head and your chin is underneath. To reach your eyes, the light from your hair hits the mirror at a slight angle and then bounces into your eyes from above - which is why you see your hair on top and your image as right side up. \n\nAs everyone knows, a flat mirror reverses your right side and your left side. How does it do that? Suppose you are standing face to face with another person. If your right ear points toward the east, his or her left ear will point toward the east. Now, instead of facing another person, suppose you are facing a flat mirror with your right ear pointing to the east. The light from your right ear will bounce off the flat mirror and enter your eyes from the east. Even though your east ear is the east ear of the image, your right ear has become the left ear of the image! (Yes, this is a little mind-boggling at first reading. But once you get it, it will seem simple.)
333620
Turn on the first light switch for a while. Then turn it off and turn the third light switch on, then enter the room. If the light is on, it is the third switch. If the light is off and cold, it is the second switch. If the light is off, but warm, it is the first switch.
865051
I am guessing you are asking a more basic question.  Light spreads out as it propogates making stuff that is far away appear dimmer.  Understanding the distance to something is therefore necessary to understand the total power production of a source. If light did not spread out, this would not be an issue in research. \n\nThe apparent brightness falls off by a factor of 1/d^2 where d is the distance between the observer and an unresolved ("point") source.
98069
It's a skylight, only that instead of being in the ceiling, it is in the wall.\n\nIt's also a lamp shade that deflects light away from the center of the room, so that the illumination is softer.
827893
It works on photo electricprinciple.\n\nBasic is a light source and a reflective surface(mirror).\n\nCircuit either stay normaly open or shute but when the beam is broken it provides a signal which in turn operates a system, say bell or a motor, that can open a door.
810039
Even in Ancient Egypt they knew how to reflect light into a dark room.\n\nWe have been using mirrors and other reflective device to enhance the natural light of different object.  From light houses to gas lamps to solar heaters just to name a few.\n\nOne of the newest things to buy is the solatube (daylight pipe, light pipe,tubular skylight) that reflects sunlight down a tube to the room that you wish.  \n\nYou might just want to have a light color wall and carpets to lighten a room.
703738
a mirror reflects light and reflects what light reflects off of (like if the light is on, you can be seen in the mirror).  Your shirt also reflects light.  A red shirt absorbs all the colors of light except for red, which is reflected.
139293
Light of different wavelengths will have different refractive indices when entering a new medium (like glass) from air.  This means that they will bend to different degrees.  Hence, white light will be dispersed by passing through glass or water.  It's how a prism works, but it's also why serious astronomers use reflective telescopes rather than refractive telescopes.\n\nA normal mirror like the one in your bathroom will be aluminum on the back side of glass.  But the ones in big observatories are aluminized on the front side of the glass so that the light doesn't have to pass through a different media, which would cause not only dispersion, but loss of light.\n\nAt the observatory on Mount Palomar in California, I had an opportunity to see the chamber where the mirror is realuminized.  The mirror itself is made from pyrex glass, not due to the transparency of glass, but due to the resistance of the glass to changing size (and hence changing curvature) when its temperature changes.  When it's time to lay a new coat of aluminum (that's alumium for you Brittish-type English speakers) on the glass, the put the mirror in an air tight chamber that fits atop the mirror.  All air is sucked out of the chamber, creating a vacuum.  There are serveral tungsten filaments (the same material that makes the filament in a lightbulb) on the roof of the chamber, and on on these filaments a few aluminum clips are hung.  Then a charge is given to the hooks, and then a great current heats the filaments.  In the vacuum, the aluminum will vaporize.  The aluminum vapor will cling by static charge and condense on the glass, making a very, very fine coat of aluminum.\n\nTotal digression, I'm sure.  Cheers.
1169747
They don't reverse light they bounce it back the same way it enters. Your left side in the mirror is on the left side of the mirror and your right is on the right. A person facing you is reversed because they are turned in the opposite direction.
67116
Its made that way as an anti-glare feature.\n\nThere's a full mirror behind a partial mirror.  The two mirrors are a few degrees apart either can be used.  The dimmer one is for night driving to cut glare from headlights.
818655
The glass is poured to the desired thickness, and then silver is applied to the back to give it's reflective surface.  It is then coated with another substance to prevent the light from passing all the way through.  You then see your reflection.\nIn a piece of two way mirror, the silver is applied to the front of the mirror and the other non-reflective substance is omitted.  Thus, you can see all the way through.\nOne good way to tell if you are looking at a piece of two way mirror, is to put your finger up to the glass.  If there is no 'space' between the tip of your finger and the glass...it may be 2-way.  If there is a 'space', it may be only one-way.\nNext time you go into a store, look around for mirrors that appear in the most unusual places.  More than likely, these are 2-way.
489404
yes...but u must know the angle of incidence and angle of refraction...light up a candle and place a mirror opposite to it in a room at an angle so tat u can see the candle.then keep other mirror at a place where u can see the first mirror and the candle... continue the process till u get sufficient light. try to place mirrors in the ceiling to get better light.
683801
reduce your light on the screen if no change see an optician they will advise you