Mirror
A mirror is an object whose surface 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.
The most common use of mirrors is for personal hygiene, however mirrors are also used in scientific apparatus such as telescopes and lasers, as well as 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.
Effects
In a plane mirror, a parallel beam of light changes its direction as a whole, while still remaining parallel; the images formed by a plane mirror are virtual images, of the same size as the original object (see mirror image). There are also concave mirrors, where a parallel beam of light becomes a convergent beam, whose rays intersect in the focus of the mirror. Finally, there are convex mirrors, where a parallel beam becomes divergent, with the rays appearing to diverge from a common intersection "behind" the mirror. Spherical concave and convex mirrors do not focus parallel rays to a single point due to spherical aberration. However, the ideal of focusing to a point is a commonly-used approximation. Parabolic reflectors resolve this, allowing incoming parallel rays (for example, light from a distant star) to be focused to a small spot; almost an ideal point. Parabolic reflectors are not suitable for imaging nearby objects because the light rays are not parallel.
A beam of light reflects off a mirror at an angle of reflection that is equal to its angle of incidence. That is, if the beam of light is shining on a mirror's surface at a 30° angle from vertical, then it reflects from the point of incidence at a 30° angle from vertical in the opposite direction.
Composition
Early mirrors were usually 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. 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. This type of mirror reflects about 80% of the incident light. The "back side" of the mirror is often painted black 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 improve the image quality. Metal films on the front surface are generally covered with a thin, transparent coating to protect them from corrosion, 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 being damaged.
Applications
Viewing
Viewing one's own body
A mirror is used for inspecting parts of one's body which are difficult or impossible to see directly, such as the face, neck or the whole body. This may be to check physical appearance (including clothing, make-up, hair, etc.) or to control applying make-up, shaving, cutting hair, fixing one's tie, etc. The optimal size and position for a mirror to view one's whole body is half of one's height with the top edge between the top of one's head and eyes.
Safety and easier viewing
Rear-view mirrors are used in and on vehicles (such as automobiles, or bicycles), to allow drivers to see other vehicles coming up behind them. Some motorcycle helmets have a built-in so-called MROS (Multiple Reflective Optic System): a set of reflective surfaces inside the helmet which together function as a rear-view mirror.[1] There exist rear view sunglasses, of which the left end of the left glass and the right end of the right glass work as mirrors.
Convex mirrors are used to provide a wider field of view than a flat mirror. They are sometimes placed at road junctions, and corners of places such as parking lots to allow people to see around corners to avoid crashing into other vehicles or shopping carts. They are also sometimes used as part of security systems, so that a single video camera can show more than one angle at a time.
Corner reflectors use three flat mirrors to reflect light back towards it's source. They are used for emergency location, and even laser ranging to the Moon.
With the sun as light source, a mirror can be used to signal, by variations in the orientation of the mirror. The signal can be used over long distances, possibly up to 60 kilometres on a clear day. This technique was used by Native American tribes and numerous militaries to transmit information between distant outposts.
A mirror is sometimes used for voyeurism, e.g. upskirt. Other uses of mirrors in hedonistic acts include the classic 'mirror on the ceiling' for use during sex, and the use of mirrors for 'cutting' and snorting cocaine. Use of a large number of mirrors in a confined space can act to satisfy people's desire for satisfaction of their ego, as in the hall of mirrors in the Palace of Versailles. Mirrors are sometimes used to cover an entire wall of a room, to give an impression that the room is much larger than it is.
One-way mirror
A one-way mirror reflects some percentage of the light and lets some other percentage pass. It is a sheet of glass coated with a layer of metal only a few dozen atoms thick, allowing some of the light through the surface (from both sides). It is used between a dark room and a brightly lit room. Persons on the brightly lit side see their own reflection - it looks like a normal mirror. Persons on the dark side see through it - it looks like a transparent window. It may be used to observe criminal suspects or customers (to watch out for theft). The same type of mirror, when used in an optical instrument, is called a half-silvered mirror or beam splitter. Its purpose is to split a beam of light so that half passes straight through, while the other half is reflected — this is useful for interferometry.
Contrary to popular belief, one-way mirrors that function well between equally lit rooms do not exist. The laws of physics do not allow for real, passive one-way mirrors (ones that do not need external energy); if such a device were possible, one could break the second law of thermodynamics and make energy flow from a cold object to a hot one, by placing such a mirror between them. (There is no prohibition against one-way windows, however.[1][2] Optical isolators are one-way devices, that are commonly used with lasers.)
Technology
Televisions and Projectors
Microscopic mirrors are a core element of many of the largest high-definition televisions and video projectors. A common technology of this type is Texas Instruments' DLP. A DLP chip is a postage stamp-sized microchip whose surface is comprised of an array of millions of microscopic mirrors. The picture is created as the individual mirrors move to either reflect light toward the projection surface (pixel on), or toward a light absorbing surface (pixel off).
Other projection technologies involving mirrors include LCoS. Like a DLP chip, LCoS is a microchip of similar size, but rather than millions of individual mirrors, there is a single mirror that is actively shielded by a liquid crystal matrix with up to millions of pixels. The picture is formed as light is either reflected toward the projection surface (pixel on), or absorbed by the activated LCD pixels (pixel off). LCoS-based televisions and projectors often use 3 chips, one for each primary color.
Instruments
Telescopes and other precision instruments use front silvered or first surface mirrors, where the reflecting surface is placed on the front (or first) surface of the glass, which gives better image quality. Some of them use silver, but most are aluminum, which is more reflective at short wavelengths than silver. All of these coatings are easily damaged and require special handling. They reflect 90% to 95% of the incident light when new. The coatings are typically applied by vacuum deposition. A protective overcoat is usually applied before the mirror is removed from the vacuum, because the coating otherwise begins to corrode as soon as it is exposed to oxygen and humidity in the air. Front silvered mirrors have to be resurfaced occasionally to keep their quality.
The reflectivity of the mirror coating can be measured using a reflectometer and for a particular metal it will be different for different wavelengths of light. This is exploited in some optical work to make cold mirrors and hot mirrors. A cold mirror is made by using a transparent substrate and choosing a coating material that is more reflective to visible light and more transmissive to infrared light. A hot mirror is the opposite, the coating preferentially reflects infrared. Mirror surfaces are sometimes given thin film overcoatings both to retard degradation of the surface and to increase their reflectivity in parts of the spectrum where they will be used. For instance, aluminum mirrors are commonly coated with silicon dioxide or magnesium fluoride. The reflectivity as a function of wavelength depends on both the thickness of the coating and on how it is applied.
For scientific optical work, dielectric mirrors are often used. These are glass (or sometimes other material) substrates on which one or more layers of dielectric material are deposited, to form an optical coating. By careful choice of the type and thickness of the dielectric layers, the range of wavelengths and amount of light reflected from the mirror can be specified. The best mirrors of this type can reflect >99.999% of the light (in a narrow range of wavelengths) which is incident on the mirror. Such mirrors are often used in lasers.
In astronomy, adaptive optics is a technique to measure variable image distortions and adapt a deformable mirror accordingly on a timescale of milliseconds, to compensate for the distortions.
Although the most of mirrors are designed to reflect visible light, surfaces reflecting other forms of electromagnetic radiation are also called "mirrors". The mirrors for other ranges of electromagnetic waves are used in optics and astronomy. Mirrors for radio waves are important elements of radio telescopes.
A Mangin mirror is a combination lens and concave mirror and is widely used in optical instruments and even sometimes in cameras.[2] [3][4]
Military Applications
It has been said that Archimedes used a large array of mirrors to burn Roman ships during an attack on Syracuse. This has never been proved or disproved; however, many have put it to the test. Recently, on a popular Discovery Channel show, MythBusters, a team from MIT tried to recreate the famous "Archimedes Death Ray". They were successful at starting a fire on a ship at 75 feet away, however, previous attempts to light the boat on fire using only the bronze mirrors available in Archimedes' time were unsuccessful, and the time taken to ignite the craft would have made its use impractical, resulting in the MythBusters team deeming the myth implausible.
Modern thermonuclear weapons use x-ray mirrors to focus radiation from the primary onto the secondary to create conditions favoring nuclear fusion (see Nuclear weapons design for more details).
Leisure
Decoration
Mirrors, typically large and unframed, are frequently used in interior decoration to create an illusion of space, and amplify the apparent size of a room.
A decorative reflecting sphere of thin metal-coated glass, working as a reducing wide-angle mirror, is sold as a Christmas ornament called a bauble.
Entertainment
The hall of mirrors, commonly found in amusement parks, is an attraction in which a number of distorted mirrors are used to produce unusual reflections of the visitor. Mirror mazes, also found in amusement parks, contain large numbers of mirrors and sheets of glass. The idea is to navigate the disorientating array without bumping into the walls.
Mirrors are often used in magic to create an illusion.
Illuminated rotating disco balls covered with small mirrors are used to cast moving spots of light around a dance floor.
Anamorphosis
One kind of anamorphosis has an interposed cylindrical or conical mirror making it possible to apprehend an image which is the reflection of a deformed image conceived for this purpose. The deformed image is painted on a plane surface surrounding the mirror. By looking uniquely into the mirror, the image appears normal.
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.
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.
The mirror of Galadriel, in Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be.
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.
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's deepest desires. 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 piano.
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.
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
Notes
- ^ Mungan, C.E. (1999). "Faraday Isolators and Kirchhoff's Law: A Puzzle" (pdf). Retrieved 2006-07-18.
- ^ Rayleigh, On the magnetic rotation of light and the second law of thermodynamics, Nature (London), Vol. 64, p. 577 (Oct. 10, 1901).
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 .