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Will light be trapped in a room full of mirrors? Can this experiment be done?
Sure but you could easily imagine compensating for this with some external pressure. The real kicker is that there exist no perfect mirrors, so eventually the photons will not be re-emitted. Also, it is impossible to construct a geometry such that you can emit a photon and have it never impact the photon source. So you have to imagine a situation where you shine a light into a chamber and very shortly afterwards "close" the chamber before the light has a chance to escape.wouldn't radiation pressure make impossible to "trap" light? since every reflection off the mirror would need the mirror to experience twice the force of the intensity of the light wave. which, although small, would cause movement to the mirror. kind of like a solar sail.
Erm no, you can't see light unless it goes into your eye.30 miles say 1000 reflections with the best mirrors mankind could make the light would dim in 1/6th of second , just long enough for you to perceive it dimming
I still wonder what happens in the fridge when I shut the door. The greens stay green so perhaps it stays on. There's not room inside for me to stay in and check, though.well if you were to light a bulb in a room with 100% mirrors comprising its inner surface, as soon as you turn the bulb off then I'm sure the light would disappear!
I wish I knew enough basic physics to know where that light goes, lol.
I think we have the answers
1 light can of course be trapped in a room full of mirrors. the laws of physics allow it to be reflected
2 it wont stay trapped for long because light moves so fast and no mirrors are prefect & absorb some light with each reflection
meaning you would need an impossibly large box , or and impossibly perfect mirror...Impossible in human terms anyway...except for a few a milliseconds in lab or science show demonstration