mirror reflection- how physics explain the light  rays hitting bouncing back A MIRROR?
917168
The experimental fact verified by experiments with light rays and mirror show that the happenings follow certain laws: If the light ray hits normally it comes back by the same path. If obliquely then it comes back obliquely equally inclined to the normal at the point of incidence and in the same plane of normal and the incident ray. But if you do experiment in which you also measure the intensity of light incident and reflected, then you find that the intensity of reflected light is slightly less. This shows that some light is either absorbed or scattered following no specific laws. Now this is the experimental fact. Now explanations. Explanation depends upon what you assume light to be made up of. If photons, then you know what happens to the table tennis ball when it hits the table without spinning. Same thing should happen to photons. That is how Newton explained  the phenomenon considering light as consisting of particles. He called them corpuscles. But photon is not an ordinary particle in bulk. It is supposed to have dual nature. Its total energy is equal h multiplied by some frequency which is a wave characteristic. Ordinary particle can have all velocities ranging from zero to velocity of light. But photons move with only one  velocity. So in case of bulky table tennis balls we say that they follow these rules of reflection which can be derived from mechanics but lose their little kinetic energy to the table and as sound. In case of photons this is not possible. So we say that if a bunch of photons are incident on a polished surface, there exists a maximum probability of following the laws of reflection, but the probability of the photon getting absorbed or getting scattered in any other direction is vey low but not zero. Similar expalnation can be thought of following the hypothesis that light is electromagnetic wave then we have to take the example of the mechanical waves and see how em wave is differen from them.
745196
What you are describing is a result of light reflecting off a concave surface.  The best way to explain this is like this:\n\nDraw a big T on a piece of paper.\nNow draw a line from the lower right side to the vertex of the T (that's the intersect).  This represents light coming in.\nNow draw another line from the vertex to a point at the same location as the origin of the other line, but on the lower left.  That is the light leaving.  The angles of both lines converging on the crossing of the T should be the same.  Same with any beam of light.  It is reflected at the same angle as it is received.\n\nA spoon is a reflecting concave mirror.  If you could get close enough to the spoon you could see your image right side up.  But when you are further out than the focal distance the image inverts because the beams cross over each other.
440395
Refracted light rays bend toward the normal when the material being entered has a higher index of refraction then the material you are coming from.  Reflected light behaves according to total internal reflection, and bounces off the surface at the same angle that it approached at, much like skipping a stone off a lake's surface.  Check out snell's law on wikipedia for more.
813541
Whenever a ray enters from glass medium to air medium, the light is reflected as well as refracted. That is both reflection and refraction take place.\n\nWhen the angle of incidence (in glass) is zero, the angle of refraction (in air) is also zero. This is called normal incidence and there is no reflection inside the glass.\n\nWhen the angle of incidence is increased from zero, there is both reflection and refraction. For refection the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection and for refraction the angle of refraction (in air) is greater than the angle of incidence (in glass).\n\nWhen the angle of incidence equals the critical angle there is both reflection and refraction. For refection the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection and for refraction the angle of refraction (in air) equals 90 degree.\n\nWhen the angle of incidence exceeds the critical angle, then there is no refraction and there is only reflection and the angle of incidence is equal to angle of reflection.\n\nThe ray not only is reflected internally but also is totally reflected, i.e., there is no refraction.  That is there is TOTAL internal reflection.
417045
Or did you mean when light hits an object, rather than lightning?\n\nIn this case, it really depends on the composition of the object and the wavelength of the light.  Generally, some of the light is absorbed into the object in the form of energy, and some of it is reflected back.  For example, a white light shone onto a red postbox will absorb every colour within the white light except for the red wavelengths which will reflect and be seen, hence it appearing red.
415941
One-way mirrors are actually just glass coated with less reflective material, known more scientifically as half-silvered mirrors. The result is that only about half of the light is reflected from the glass on either side. But by placing the glass between a dark room and a bright room it effectively becomes a one-way mirror. On the brighter side, the half reflected imaged is far brighter than the half transmitted image from the other side, all we see if the reflected image. On the darker side, the transmitted image is far brighter than the reflected image, so you see whats on the outside. If you simply reversed the lighting, the effect would be reversed.\n\nThis is similar to sunglasses which allows the wearer to see out but hides the wearers eyes. Also observable in home windows at night. In a brightly lit room, the reflection will be seen easier than whats outside if there's no lighting outside.
422475
Angle at which light is totally reflected. \n\nThis website has a good diagram.\n\nhttp://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/refrn/U14L3c.html
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.)
181006
I cannot tell you whether or not it has been done...\nBut I will never be truly "trapped" even with a mirror with a fairly high finish (aka 1-2 microns) there is still a loss every time it "bounces" off the mirror + if you do not do it in a vacuum there will be atomspheric losses as well.\nHenceforth if it is "trapped" it wouldn't stay there for long..
459285
Photos capture an image of light.  And mirrors essentially reflect photons. We know that photons, particles of light, have wave/particle properties and when they are reflected off of an object, they are affected by the surface of the object of mirror. Look at your self on both side of a spoon.  The concave part, the one that is curved in, should have an upside down version of you, and on the otherside, convex, you will have an elongated version of yourself.  \nIf you look at the queston from a quantum phsyics perspective.  Every time you look in the mirror, you will see a different you. This is because you are actually seeing different light reflecting off a different surface.  \nI really dont know much about cameras, but thank God for photo shop.  Mirrors are a bad invention in my opinion.  People get caught up in having to maintain an external image that the rest of the world sees, when in reality the image of ourselves that we should really work on is the one inside our heads.  Anyways, I hope I answered your question to some extent.
962965
Here's what happens: imagine you're standing with the Sun at your back looking at a water drop. As a light ray from the Sun hits the drop, it is bent inwards, toward the center of the drop. It bounces off the back of the drop (coming towards you again) and then refracts again on its way out. As a result you see the light ray appearing to come from some point behind the drop, that is, on the opposite side of the sky from the sun (which is where you see rainbows!) \n\n\nBut what about the colors? It turns out that each color of light is bent a little bit differently - red light is bent the least and violet the most. So, each color appears to be coming from a slightly different place behind the water drop. \n\nThe rainbow is circular because only drops located at certain places on the sky (in a circle around the point opposite the Sun) redirect the light exactly back toward your eye. It's only the light from those drops that you see, and hence you see a circle.\n\nanother explaination: This is difficult to envision and to describe, but we'll use some real common sense objects for our model. Picture yourslf standing in front of a tunnel, like you might find under a bridge - a nice even, round, smooth tunnel. Now, if you cast a shadow parallel to the ground, like a shadow from a power line (not the pole, the line - which is parallel to the ground) and let the shadow fall inside the tunnel, you can imagine that the shape of the shadow on the ceiling of the curved tunnel looks as though it is arced, even though the source of the shadow is a straight line. Can you picture that? This is what is happening in the atmosphere. The rainbow is actually a straight line, since light travels in a straight line. Its just that the straight line is falling across a 'fish bowl' like pocket of moist, reflective air, like our tunnel in the model. The rainbow appears, therefore, to be an arc.
302633
You neglect to mention whether the light hits the mirror on its axis of rotation.. assuming that it does, the reflected ray is delfected through twice the nagle that the mirror moves.. thus, 40 degrees.\nLook up "optical lever"
712051
Light waves are in the visual spectrum and so they bounce off of solid objects.. Radio waves like X rays are in a non visual spectrum and penetrate.
1075466
This phenomenon is call total internal reflection.\nThe theory explaining the phenomenon is detailed in most good physics optics textbooks.
967896
You see a mirror in a mirror in a mirror in a mirror ......\nThere are various gadgets using this effect. \nFor instance if you put a lightbulb between the two mirrors and look throug the one way mirror you will see (depending how parallel you've managed to put the mirrors) lots of lightbulbs disappearing into infinity. I know 'cause I've done it!
634321
Every time the ray of light goes from one mirror to the other, it goes through a certain distance d along the mirrors axis (in the 20m direction).   The law of reflection says that the angle of incidence is the same angle as the one the ray will leave the mirror surface, so, we can build a right triangle, with the reflected ray of light as the hypotenuse.  So, we have:\n\nr*Sin( theta ) = d    and   r*Cos( theta ) = a\n\nDividing the first over the second:\n\nSin( theta ) / Cos ( theta ) = d / a\n\nOr:    Tan( theta ) = d / a\n\n            --->   d = a*Tan( theta )\n\ntheta being 30 degrees and a being 10cm = 0.1m\n\nNow, just divide 20m over d and you're good to go.\n\nHope I helped.
287924
That's because light reflects in the mirror just as if it's coming from the same distance the real object is but behind the mirror.  You are nor looking an image that is at the mirror distance, but really at the real object distance.