Light capture mirror ball.

[Om.]

Would a glass sphere, coated with a two-way mirror, capture light and glow after the light's out, for a time? Mirrors like are used in police station interrogation rooms. It would naturally lose light, but at the same time the curve would concentrate it.

 

[percysunshine]

Would a glass sphere, coated with a two-way mirror, capture light and glow after the light's out, for a time? Mirrors like are used in police station interrogation rooms. It would naturally lose light, but at the same time the curve would concentrate it.

A problem in thermodynamics, cool.

Every reflection imparts/transfers energy to the atoms of the mirror. In essence, heating them up. It is not a large percentage energy loss from the photon, but light is fast and will bounce around a lot before you can blink.

The answer to your question is...'Not for very long.'

 

[Ernie S.]

If the mirror coating was 100% reflective. theoretically, the light could be trapped inside the sphere with zero loss. However, your two way mirror is nowhere near 100% reflective, so, while you might have some light stored for a fraction of a picosecond, no you can't store light.

 

[flacaltenn]

Light travels 1 foot in about a nanosecond. 0.00000001 sec. The pathlength inside the "ball" would have to be 100+ miles long in order for your eye to detect a glow.. Not only that -- but a 2 way mirror loses a lot of light. Say it allowed 20% to come back out. After only 4 or 5 bounces -- more than 1/2 the light would be gone.

So this isn't gonna work that way.. You COULD coat the inside with a phosphur material that sustained the glow.

What you're describing is an optical resonator cavity. It's the heart of every laser. But it doesn't "store" the light that is bouncing between mirrors, it just purifies it and excites a gas BETWEEN the mirrors which acts as an amplifier.

You might start here. Optical cavity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you want to see what light looks like when it propagates thru a glass bottle..

http://www.usmessageboard.com/scien...e-trillion-frames-per-second.html#post5736365

I get 0.001% of the royalties now -- y'hear...

 

[Intense]

Would a glass sphere, coated with a two-way mirror, capture light and glow after the light's out, for a time? Mirrors like are used in police station interrogation rooms. It would naturally lose light, but at the same time the curve would concentrate it.

What is the speed that light travels?

 

[percysunshine]

Would a glass sphere, coated with a two-way mirror, capture light and glow after the light's out, for a time? Mirrors like are used in police station interrogation rooms. It would naturally lose light, but at the same time the curve would concentrate it.

What is the speed that light travels?

Very fast.

 

[Om.]

What if you shot a laser at it? Seems that would boost the glow time.

 

[Om.]

The idea is that you'd have to keep it cold. You would produce heat from the concentrated light,

 

[flacaltenn]

May your beer stay cold and your weed be highly concentrated.