eli5: What is the difference between a mirror and a white object?

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I mean, what does a white object do? Absorbs nothing, reflects all light back.

What does a mirror do? Absorbs nothing, reflects all light back.

Having the same characteristics, how does a mirror reflect an image and a white object, a white texture?

In: Physics

18 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

The white object reflects most of the light back but critically it also diffuses it while the mirror also reflects most of it back but doesn’t diffuse it. It reflects it directly back so that the information carried by it stays coherent.

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