- Dec 7, 2009
- 10,132
- 382
- 126
This is different than the last thread.
The last thread is about why mirrors reverse an image.
This thread asks...why do mirrors reflect anything at all?
Now, a mirror is presumably just a very flat sheet of highly polished metal.
The metal has on the surface electrons on the outer shell of the metal's atoms. I can see why negatively charged particles would bounce off this surface as electrons are negatively charged and would bounce other negatively charged particles off of it, but why photons?
Photons have zero charge, otherwise we would be able to bend photons with an electric field.
So why do photons bounce off of mirrors? Or any surface for that matter?
The last thread is about why mirrors reverse an image.
This thread asks...why do mirrors reflect anything at all?
Now, a mirror is presumably just a very flat sheet of highly polished metal.
The metal has on the surface electrons on the outer shell of the metal's atoms. I can see why negatively charged particles would bounce off this surface as electrons are negatively charged and would bounce other negatively charged particles off of it, but why photons?
Photons have zero charge, otherwise we would be able to bend photons with an electric field.
So why do photons bounce off of mirrors? Or any surface for that matter?