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
Mirrors don’t look like they have the color of what they are reflecting.
When you see blue on the towel surface, light has hit the towel, and mostly blue light scattered from there to your eyes.
When you see a blue towel reflected by a mirror, you are not “seeing blue” at the mirror surface. Light has hit the towel, mostly blue light was scattered from there, some reflected on the mirror, then reached your eyes.
We shouldn’t say a mirror has “silver color”. If anything, a mirror would be white (as it can reflect all colors). A blue tinted mirror is a “blue mirror” by the same reasoning. One could say that the mirror does not reflect 100% of all light, so it is somewhat grey, thus “silver” – an opaque silver object is grey; polished silver is reflective, it has no “color” of its own.
Latest Answers