Why mirrors are green

Color is a very wonderful thing, and so is our ability to see color. The human eye can actually differentiate over ten million individual colors. That, my dear readers, is a lot of paint swatches from Home Depot. When ever you look at any color, you probably see a lot of different colors in it, all mixed in making the unique shade that you see before you. But I have a question for all of you: What color is a mirror? If you go to places like Amazon. But actually, a mirror is whatever color is in front of it.

As we look at the things around us, they can be any one of the ten million colors that we can see. Now then, we must ask, why is it that blue is blue? Ultimately, the color of an object depends on what color of light is not absorbed. When visible light hits an object like a blue bucket , all colors in the visible spectrum are absorbed except for blue. Another reason for the slight greenish hue is that mirrors tend to reflect light of green wavelength most strongly.

In case of these infinity mirror tunnels, the light, before reaching your eyes, has been reflected multiple times and that is why it appears a more noticeable shade of green. Most of the times, silver is what we perceive a mirror to be. Secondly, a mirror is formed by polishing silver on the back of a flat, planar glass. Now that silver at the back is what helps in the reflection process.

And that is particularly the basis for a mirror to appear silver. A mirror has no particular color. You may or may not call it colorless. A mirror is every color of the object that it reflects. The image that is formed in your eyes is by the reflection of light from the object to the mirror and into your eyes.

But because the order of light particles photons is reversed by the reflection process, the product is a mirror image. Modern mirrors are made by silvering, or spraying a thin layer of silver or aluminum onto the back of a sheet of glass. The silica glass substrate reflects a bit more green light than other wavelengths, giving the reflected mirror image a greenish hue. This greenish tint is imperceptible but it is truly there.

You can see it in action by placing two perfectly aligned mirrors facing each other so the reflected light constantly bounces off each other. Tibi is a science journalist and co-founder of ZME Science.

He writes mainly about emerging tech, physics, climate, and space. In his spare time, Tibi likes to make weird music on his computer and groom felines. Home Other Feature Post. What color is a mirror? June 26, Reading Time: 5 mins read.