wrote in message
ups.com...
This came from my eight year old daughter who noticed that wet
surfaces
start to reflect when before they didn't.

I was wondering how small a mirror has to get before it stops
reflecting. Or do, say, atoms reflect images of each other in their
surfaces?

Thanks

Mike

Redirecting to sci.physics.relativity, attention Sue.

Androcles.

Androcles wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
This came from my eight year old daughter who noticed that wet
surfaces
start to reflect when before they didn't.

I was wondering how small a mirror has to get before it stops
reflecting. Or do, say, atoms reflect images of each other in their
surfaces?

Thanks

Mike

Redirecting to sci.physics.relativity, attention Sue.

Androcles.

A mirror works because it is relativly smooth at the
wavelength of interest. An example of the "smallest mirror"
is the reflector element on a yagi antenna. It is just
over 1/2 wavelength.

The size of the mirror in wavelengths determines
how much incident light is intercepted and redirected.

Try it! Put a small mirror next to one about
10 times the it's area such that you can see your
face framed in both mirrors. The image in the
large mirror should be noticeably brighter tho'
the image size is comparable.

The Feynman path integral works whether
you assume a field wave or a probability
wave because he put the time component
back in QM.

3) Photons reflect from a mirror
in ALL angles (equally) and not only
in the one that is the same to the incoming
angle.

Yes, this statement is also true, as
long as we specify, what "equally" means.
One thing is obvious from everyday life, in
the mirror of your car, you do not see all
objects on the road such as cars in front
of you, ... , but you see only objects which
shine light under the proper angle in order
to get it to your eyes. Therefore, this
statement 3. needs a little thought, which
Feynman luckily did for us :-) To be precise,
his statement says, that photons reflect in
all existing directions, but NOT with EQUAL
PROBABILITY.

http://www.fnal.gov/pub/inquiring/qu...s/feynman.html

Sue...