Why Can't You See Your Reflection on Notebook Paper? The Science Behind It

[Holocene]

If white reflects all wavelengths, why can you not see your reflection on a piece of notebook paper?

Is it because the light is scattered or "broken up" before being reflected?

 

[Dale]

That is correct, it is a diffuse rather than a specular reflection. A mirror needs to have a specular reflection more than it needs to be colorless.

 

[jobyts]

If the reflected light is diffused due to the uneven surface of the paper, I should be seeing some random image made from some random points from the surrounding ojects, right? But, instead of that, why am I seeing the paper itself?

 

[cesiumfrog]

I should be seeing some random image made from some random points from the surrounding ojects, right?

Like when you look at a shattered mirror, right? Except what if you kept smashing it down further (until the individual shards were the size of, say, a paper fibre) wouldn't you expect it to just look like a white powder (unless you used a microscope)?

 

[Loren Booda]

Magnify a paper fiber and you may see a distorted and diffracted image of someone with a microscope. Longer wavelengths (e. g, infrared) - those greater than the size of the fibers, but considerably shorter than the scale of the paper itself - may reflect a more coherent image.

Take a sheet of paper and speak firmly toward it (not to scold!) While you are talking, bend the edges of the paper toward you until your voice is reinforced. The true sound wave "image" of you voice, analogous to light but of vastly different frequency, is being projected back at you by the paper.