How is glass both able to be reflective and see through. Obviously it is but my brain can’t understand how the light can both pass through to the eyes of the person on the inside as well as reflect off the material and be seen by someone on the outside. Please help me understand. Thanks 🙂
In: Physics
4% gets reflected and 96% goes through. You can also apply coatings to change this ratio.
If there’s a significant difference in how bright the areas on either side of the glass are, either can be more dominant
For example if it’s night time outside and a lot of lights are on inside your house, the glass seems reflective to those inside because the 4% of reflected indoor light is more than the 96% of the outdoor light coming in through the glass. But to people outside, they can clearly see what is going on inside.
But then if its daytime and the lights are off inside, it’s the opposite. The 4% of reflected sunlight is more than whatever light is coming from inside, so you just see reflections if you’re outside.
Stuff like “one way mirrors” like in police movies work in part because of coatings to adjust this, and in part because they make the interrogation room much much brighter than the room that the observers are in.
Latest Answers