Light Reflection: 2 Mirrors 10ft Apart - 98M Reflections/sec?

  • Thread starter Thread starter crashoran
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Light Mirrors
AI Thread Summary
When two mirrors are placed 10 feet apart, light can theoretically reflect between them approximately 98,208,000 times per second if 100% of the light is reflected. However, some debate arises regarding whether to count each reflection as a single pass or double it due to the distance of 20 feet for two reflections. The speed of light in mirror glass is about 0.66 times the speed of light in a vacuum, while in air it is nearly equal to the speed of light in a vacuum at 0.9997c. This discrepancy in speed should be factored into calculations for more accurate results. The discussion highlights the complexities of light reflection and the need for precise measurements in different mediums.
crashoran
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
If you placed two mirrors facing each other exactly 10 feet apart (assuming 100% of the light is reflected), I figure light would pass back and forth between the mirrors ~98,208,000 times in 1 second. Or would it be half of that because the distance for two reflections traveled would actually be 20 feet? This one is hurting my brain..

Apologies for the randomness of this question but it came to me last night and has been bugging me since.
 
Science news on Phys.org
98 mil 1 way, 49 mil 2 ways.
 
Is this in a vacuum ?
Either way, the speed of light in the mirror glass is 0.66c, the speed of light in air is 0.9997c.
Recalculate !
 
Thread 'A quartet of epi-illumination methods'
Well, it took almost 20 years (!!!), but I finally obtained a set of epi-phase microscope objectives (Zeiss). The principles of epi-phase contrast is nearly identical to transillumination phase contrast, but the phase ring is a 1/8 wave retarder rather than a 1/4 wave retarder (because with epi-illumination, the light passes through the ring twice). This method was popular only for a very short period of time before epi-DIC (differential interference contrast) became widely available. So...
I am currently undertaking a research internship where I am modelling the heating of silicon wafers with a 515 nm femtosecond laser. In order to increase the absorption of the laser into the oxide layer on top of the wafer it was suggested we use gold nanoparticles. I was tasked with modelling the optical properties of a 5nm gold nanoparticle, in particular the absorption cross section, using COMSOL Multiphysics. My model seems to be getting correct values for the absorption coefficient and...
Back
Top