Mirror
A mirror is an object with a surface that has good specular reflection; that is, it is smooth enough to form an image. The most familiar type of mirror is the plane mirror, which has a flat surface. Curved mirrors are also used, to produce magnified or demagnified images or focus light.
Mirrors are most commonly used for personal grooming, decoration, and architecture. Mirrors are also used in scientific apparatus such as telescopes and lasers, cameras, and industrial machinery. Most mirrors are designed for visible light, however, mirrors designed for other wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation are also used, especially in optical instruments.
Composition
Early mirrors were often little more than a sheet of polished metal, often silver or copper, for example the Aranmula kannadi. Most modern mirrors consist of a thin layer of aluminium deposited on a sheet of glass. This layer is called the Tain. They are back silvered, where the reflecting surface is viewed through the glass sheet; this makes the mirror durable, but lowers the image quality of the mirror due to extraneous reflections from the front surface of the glass (ordinary glass typically reflects around 4% of the light). This type of mirror reflects about 80% of the incident light. The "back side" of the mirror is often painted or coated in some way to completely seal the metal from corrosion.
Mirrors for precision optical applications are more likely to have the reflective coating on the front surface of the mirror, to eliminate reflection from the glass. Metal films on the front surface are generally covered with a thin, transparent coating to protect them from corrosion. This is often made of silica. In some cases this coating may also enhance reflectivity.
Mirrors designed for special applications, such as in LASERs and other advanced optical devices, use a reflective optical coating composed of many layers of different dielectric materials. Such coatings can be designed to have extremely high reflectivity and are reasonably durable. Since they absorb very little of the incident light they can be used with high power lasers without absorbing the energy and being damaged.
Mirrors in literature
It is a common superstition that someone who breaks a mirror will receive seven years of bad luck.
In Greek mythology, the hero Perseus killed Medusa by using a mirrored shield so as not to gaze upon her monstrous appearance (she turned anyone who looked at her to stone.)
In English literature, a famous example is Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, in which protagonist Alice uses a mirror as a portal to a strange alternate world.
A common use is that of scrying with a mirror. In Canterbury Tales, "The Squire's Tale" describes a magical mirror that can look over a king's realm; similarly, in The Faerie Queene, Merlin enchants a mirror to have this power.[1] Another example, from the German tales of the brothers Grimm, is Snow White, in which the Wicked Queen consults a magic mirror to determine the identity of the most beautiful woman in the world; this mirror is capable of scrying the forest and finding Snow White. In modern fantasy, the mirror of Galadriel, in J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be.
Tennyson's Lady of Shalott has a mirror which shatters, releasing a curse on her.
Mirrors, along with labyrinths, figure prominently in the work of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, who often used them as symbols of infinity, impersonation, and illusion. In Dreamtigers, he writes of fearing that his reflection would move independently or change shape before his eyes. In Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, a fictional heresiarch declares that "mirrors and copulation are abominable, since they both multiply the numbers of men."
Similarly, Edgar Allan Poe expresses an aversion to mirrors in The Philosophy of Furniture:
[R]egarded apart from its reflection, the mirror presents a continuous, flat, colourless, unrelieved surface, – a thing always and obviously unpleasant. Considered as a reflector, it is potent in producing a monstrous and odious uniformity: and the evil is here aggravated, not in merely direct proportion with the augmentation of its sources, but in a ratio constantly increasing. In fact, a room with four or five mirrors arranged at random, is, for all purposes of artistic show, a room of no shape at all. If we add to this evil, the attendant glitter upon glitter, we have a perfect farrago of discordant and displeasing effects.
The King in the Window works off some of the concepts laid out by Lewis Carroll to develop its own tale of a war between the benevolent habitants of windows and the soul-stealing Master of Mirrors.
In the Harry Potter series of novels, the Mirror of Erised is a magic mirror that reflects its viewer, not physically, but representing the viewer's deepest desires.[2] Also featured in the series is a type of device (a dark detector) that functions as a mirror, depicting not only the gazer but also a number of shadowy figures in the background; they are enemies and their proximity to the viewer represents their imminent threat.
In Bram Stoker's Dracula the count (Dracula) has no reflection in a mirror (and no shadow).
In the comic series Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, the protagonist makes a habit of focusing on a mirror and willing himself to be able to go "through" to another, better world, and believes that the reason he is always thwarted is due to a lack of patience.
In Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions, Kilgore Trout calls mirrors "leaks," and tells people he believes they lead to other worlds. He often tells people that where he is from "taking a leak" means stealing a mirror.
In numerous cartoons, mirrors are often employed to trick both heroes and villains, as well as reflecting laser-like beams back at their source. In folklore in many regions of Europe, pigs are said to show a strong aversion to mirrors.
In Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett, a character who increases her magical powers by standing between two mirrors becomes lost in the reflections, unable to tell if she is real.
The Mirror Master in DC Comics Flash uses various scientific and mystical mirrors to commit crimes.
Sherman Alexie uses mirror imagery in his "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" to portray the inaccurate reflection of post-colonial perspective upon the Native American peoples.
In Inuyasha the Movie: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass, Princess Kaguya (or the demon that consumed the real princess) from the The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter was sealed by Miroku's grandfather Miyatsu in the Mirror of Life. After being released, she still uses the mirror as a weapon, which included sealing the main protagonist Inuyasha's human half into the mirror, therefore turning him into a full-blooded demon. Kan'na, a character from the series who also appeared in the movie, uses a mirror to steal souls and to defend herself from attacks.
In Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera Erik (the Phantom) uses a revolving room of mirrors to torment his captives. Erik also hides behind a one way mirror when teaching Christine how to sing. In Erik's lair all of the mirrors are hidden behind curtains as Erik is afraid of his own face. At the end of the film of The Phantom of the Opera the Phantom breaks out of his solitude by smashing a mirror and entering an underground tunnel.
In the Star Trek episode The Squire of Gothos, Trelane is theorised to be using his mirror as a source of his power to physically manifest his thoughts and desires. This includes teleportation, the appearance of clothes (a dress), freezing people in position and the ability to learn how to play the harpsichord.
Mirrors appear in the Bhagavad Gita (3.38): As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered by the womb, similarly, the living entity is covered by different degrees of this lust.
In Chinese Literature, the novel Dream of the Red Chamber, a Taoist monk has a two sided mirror that is capable of reflecting truth from the main screen, while the back screen shows the distorted truth.
In most fantasy stories and games, mirrors are often items that have great magical power, such as being able to oversee the activities of others in locations far away, being gateways to other realms or its most common application of being used to redirect an opponent's attack back at them.
See also
- Anamorphosis
- Aranmula kannadi
- Bronze Mirrors
- Cold Mirror and Hot Mirror
- Digital Micromirror Device
- Home decor
- Mirror writing
- Perfect mirror
- Periscope
- Rear-view mirror
- Silvering
- TLV Mirror - An ancient type of Chinese mirror from the Han Dynasty.
- Venus effect
- Deformable mirror
- Reflectivity
Notes
Bibliography
- Mirror, Mirror: A History of the Human Love Affair with Reflection, Mark Pendergrast. Basic Books (2003). ISBN 0-465-05471-4 .
- On reflection, Jonathan Miller. National Gallery Publications Limited (1998). ISBN 0-300-07713-0 .