Mirror is a type of glass , but why it is not transparent?
Mirror is a type of glass , but why it is not transparent?
A mirror can be called as opaque. Because as a whole, it does not allow light to pass through it. Defination of opaque objects: Impervious to the rays of light.
A mirror is actually a thin glass slab with its one side coated with silver. So when the rays fall on the mirror, it first falls on the upper face of the glass slab, gets refracted, travels through it, gets reflected by silver, travels back through glass slab, gets refracted at the upper glass-air interface and comes out. So here light actually "passes through" one of the parts of mirror- the glass slab(the other one being the silver coating). But when you say mirror, you consider the object as a whole and not by parts... AND as a whole it does not allow light to pass through it. Therefore, you can very well call it opaque.
Defination of opaque objects: Impervious to the rays of light.
A mirror is actually a thin glass slab with its one side coated with silver. So when the rays fall on the mirror, it first falls on the upper face of the glass slab, gets refracted, travels through it, gets reflected by silver, travels back through glass slab, gets refracted at the upper glass-air interface and comes out. So here light actually "passes through" one of the parts of mirror- the glass slab(the other one being the silver coating). But when you say mirror, you consider the object as a whole and not by parts... AND as a whole it does not allow light to pass through it. Therefore, you can very well call it opaque.
