How does tinting work where you can see out but people can’t see in?
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Tinting works by cutting out some of the light passing through the window. Usually, this is done by putting a thin mesh layer directly on the pane of glass.
If you are close to the window, then the holes in the mesh are relatively large, compared to viewing it from farther away. That means that less of your vision is obscured by the tint, while more of theirs is.
In a car for example the tint makes the inside of the car dark whereas people on the outside are in the sunlight so it’s easy to see them.
Most of the reason why one side is easier to see through is actually based on which side is lighter. The lighter room as trouble seeing through due to the high amount of reflections where the darker room’s side has less reflection and can see through more easily.
Let’s just look at normal transparent windows. They let light through but they also reflect light.
Let’s look at the windows of a house, during the day sunlight is very bright so the outside is bright. In the house even if you have a light on it s quite dark compared to the outside and as a result, when you look at a window it is very hard to see what is inside because the daylight the window reflect is a lot brighter light from the inside. It is also easy to see out of the house because the light coming through the window is brighter the reflected internal light
No compare it to the night with the light on in the house by very dark outside. The condition is now reversed, it is easy to see in but from the inside, it is reflected internal light that is dominant so it is hard to see out.
Lets look at a car tinted window will result in less light passing trough the window and alos reflect more light back. So the inside of the car is darker and more light is reflected and it is very hard to see in during the day. Even at night you usually do not have any significant amount of light source in the car so but there is light outside from streetlights, car headlights etc so the inside is still darker then the outside,
If you have a car with a tinted window and someone has a bright light inside during the night it can be bright in the car and now you can see it but it is had to see out.
If you want to see what is inside a parked car with tinted windows take a flashlight and push it against the window and try to block any light reflection with your hand around it. Now the inside is brighter than the outside and you can see it. This works for building too.
You can see through them during the day too, put you heat close to the window and block light from reach the glass around you head with you hand or even better some pice of clothing, Not there you have create a darker area for you head and it is the inside that is brighter and you can see int
This is also how one-way mirror works, You have a mirror that reflects some light and lets something. Then you can see from the darker room to the brighter room but not the other way. The flashlight trick and putting you head towards the mirror with blocked light woks here too
Alternative explanation: Think about which side of the glass has more photons hitting your eyeballs, when the tinting has a reflection ratio of 1 photon transmitted through versus 3 photons reflected.
This helped me as I was kind of struggling as to why the intensity of the light mattered, or how the darkness of the tint mattered.
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