I have been wondering this since I was a child and it’s never been explained in a way I can understand.
I’m looking at my bathroom mirror and it looks silver. But how is that possible because it’s reflecting whatever is in front of it?
So when I look at the reflection of the towel in the mirror i see blue, when I see the reflection of the wall I see white, when I see the reflection of the shower curtain I see the color of the shower curtain. But when I look at the mirror as a whole it seems silver?
I think I have read that mirrors have silver backings which makes sense why I see silver. But I don’t understand how it’s possible to see the exact reflection of my bathroom but it’s also silver?
In: Other
In short – you mainly see light that bounces from other objects and then off the mirror, but that also shows you the colour of substrate behind the pane of glass – silver in your case. But both images overlay.
If there would be no silver substrate but a copper one – you would see tints of golden-brown.
If there would be no room details but a uniform white light – you would see only tint.
Because there are no ideal mirrors – same as there are no ideal white and black materials. Yet.
Latest Answers