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
When light hits a surface, two things happen: Reflection and refraction. The ratio of refracted vs reflected light depends on the Index of Refraction of the object it hits, and the angle at which it hits.
Rough surfaces reflect light in random directions, whereas a smooth highly polished surface reflects the light directly.
Mirrors often have a highly polished metal backing. Metal has a complex index of refraction which means it reflects much more light than a dieletric (Or non-metallic) surface. Any light that is refracted (Or not reflected) gets absorbed/converted to heat in a metal, whereas when light refracts in a non-metal, it scatters/bounces around inside the material, losing some energy each time this happens. This is what gives objects their color. A red object absorbs all non-red wavelenghts, so the only wavelengths that survive are red. A white object does not absorb any wavelenghts. (In reality this does not happen, even white objects absorb a small amount of light, but they do it in such a small amount that compared to other objects, they appear white)
So, tl;dr a mirror reflects a large amount of light due to being metal, this reflection is also very sharp since the surface is smooth.
A regular “white” object does not reflect as much light, most of the light enters the object and is scattered around, and re-exits the object in random directions. Some light still gets “reflected” instead of entering the object, but it is much less than a metal mirror. It can be slightly noticable on highly smooth/polished/wet white surfaces though, they can still have a mirror-like reflection, it will just be dimmer.
Black objects (Eg a shiny black car) tend to look more reflective/mirror like, but this isn’t because they reflect more light, it’s just because all non-reflected light is quickly absorbed by the black paint, making the reflected highlights stand out more as they contrast highly with the black underlying surface.
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