Is it possible to reflect light off of air?

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Light cannot be directly reflected off of air, but it can be refracted, which is how mirages are formed. Mirages occur due to the bending of light in varying temperature layers of air, not reflection. Introducing particles like smoke or dust can scatter light, creating a midair "screen" that reflects light back. Additionally, while air is less dense than materials used in experiments like Rutherford's gold foil, the vast amount of air can still scatter or reflect light to some extent. Overall, while direct reflection off of air is not feasible, light interaction with air can create visual phenomena.
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Is it possible to reflect light off of air? If so, what would it look like?
 
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Mirages are produced by the refraction of light, not reflection.
 
Malaxus said:
Is it possible to reflect light off of air? If so, what would it look like?

Kind of. You can put some kind of material in the air, like smoke or dust, that scatters enough light back at you so that it serves as a kind of midair 'screen'. I don't know of any way to do something similar without adding something to the air.
 
You don't really need particles scattered in the air. atoms themseves can scater or reflect light. Earnst Rutheford showed this with his thin gold foil experiment. Air, of course, is much less dense, but of course there is miles-and-miles of it, depending on the "experiment" so the likeliehood is non-zero.
 
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