Mirrors

[groovy chick]

Why can you see yourself when you look in the mirror?

[groovy chick]

Why does a bottle that is almost full of water produce a high note when you blow over it?

[rojash]

Well, it would be really spooky if you saw someone else!

[MargeB]

The ambient light hits your body, bounces off, hits the mirror, and comes back to your eyes. Because of the material on the mirror and it's uniform structure, it bounces back all the light, and in a uniform way. So you see yourself.

[MargeB]

please explain this to my cat, who's convinced her reflection is another cat about to attack her.

[Hamish]

Good answer Marge B but its more than uniformity thats important. The material must have the correct composition. Imparticular it must have a delocalised electonic configureation so that when the light hits the surface it interacts with the electrons and is re-emitted (in the viable region) at all wavelengths resulting in a reflection. Note this is still a simplification, it does however expain why most good conductors are also good reflectors, ie metals are shiny.

[hopalong]

Who do you expect to see?