A mirror is just a surface that reflects light, and white is just all colours mixed together, so a white surface is just one that reflects all light. So why is one monochrome whilst the other is a reflection?
In: Physics
Mirrors and other objects that are reflective have smooth surfaces, so light reflects off of them in a predictable way, which is why you get images. White objects have rough surfaces, so light scatters in all directions and you don’t get a good image. Imagine throwing a ball against a flat wall (____) versus a jagged wall (^^^^). You can make a good prediction about where the ball goes with the flat wall, but with the jagged wall the ball could go anywhere.
Any single coloured surface reflects ONLY that colour. And the texture of the surface actually absorbs other colours.
A white MATT surface (a rough surface) will actively block red, blue, green individual sources of colours from mixing and reflecting. But add enough FOCUSED light and a white surface will act as a mirror. (See camera obscura).
A white ENAMEL (a sheen surface) will allow more colours through to reflect (hence why you can see reflections in very shiny car paints).
By using sandpaper on an enamel finish you reduce its reflectivity as more light is absorbed in the rough texture.
A mirror is a very, very flat, silver paint on clear well polished (no bumps) glass that allows almost all visible light through at any focus.
White surface is white , while mirror has three layers: 1. Transparent glass 2. Silver or aluminium coated layer and 3. Dark coloured/Black board.
The silver atoms behind the glass absorb the photons of incoming light energy and become excited. But that makes them unstable, so they try to become stable again by getting rid of the extra energy—and they do that by giving off some more photons. (You can read about how atoms take in and give out photons in our article about light.) The back of a mirror is usually covered with some sort of darkly colored, protective material to stop the silver coating from getting scratched, and also to reduce the risk of any light seeping through from behind. Silver reflects light better than almost anything else and that’s because it gives off almost as many photons of light as fall on it in the first place. The photons that come out of the mirror are pretty much the same as the ones that go into it.
If a beam of light hits a white surface, it scatters in all directions. If a beam of light hits a mirror, it reflects in one particular direction.
The result is that you can see reflected images in a mirror while a white surface just creates a single color that is a mash-up of all the incoming light.
Latest Answers