I’ve heard that mirrors have something behind them to make the glass reflective but how does that work?
In: Engineering
Glass makes mirrors *less* reflective. It just makes them much more durable. The main reflective part is the metal behind the glass. Metal reflects because the electrons in it are free to move, which means they are free to move in response to passing light. Since they move unimpeded, they absorb the light and reemit it in the reflected direction.
Specialized mirrors may not even have glass, but this makes them quite fragile. The term for these is “first surface reflector”.
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