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Imagine you have a torch and shine it at a wall. The light hits the wall and stops, right?
But with a mirror, the surface sends the light straight back to you.
The light reflected is inverted which means that it is the opposite - so in a mirror, our left and right in our reflections look swapped over. When we shine a torch onto a mirror, the light will reflect at the same angle, but in the opposite direction.
Let's think about this a bit more.
Imagine you have a bunch of tiny ping pong balls (that's the light) and you throw them at a rough wall. The balls would bounce off in all different directions, right? That's because the wall is bumpy and uneven.
Now, picture a smooth, shiny surface like a mirror. When you throw your ping pong balls (light) at the mirror, they don't bounce off all over the place. Instead, because the mirror is so smooth, the balls all bounce off at the same angle and all in the same direction.
This bouncing light is what you see as your reflection in the mirror. The smooth surface makes the light bounce off in a straight line, creating a clear image of you!
That's how a mirror shows you your own image by bouncing light back at you in a straight line!
In this activity, we will be thinking about how light waves move.
Remember that rough or bumpy surfaces will absorb the light more and bounce it back in different directions.
Very smooth and flat surfaces will bounce the light waves back the way they came (this is how mirrors work)
Good luck!
