Plastic and Glass Mirrors

Have you ever wondered how glass mirrors work?

foot mirror

Light normally behaves in one of 3 ways when it hits an object.

1. It passes through clear objects such as glass or clear plastic.
2. It is absorbed by the object which enables us to see the object and its colour. For example, it is absorbed by your computer screen.
3. It is reflected.

Often a combination of the above happens - some light will be reflected and some absorbed. For example, when you look in a lake on a clear day you will see the mountains and sky reflected. If you throw a stone into the water, the amount of light absorbed and reflected changes so the image is distorted.

mountain reflection

Early mirrors used to be made from shiny metals where some light is reflected. However, it was soon discovered that a better option was to coat one side of a sheet of glass with the reflective material. Early mirrors were coated with silver.

Nowadays, a variety of coatings and materials are used for different effects.

For more information and details of what we can supply, please see the following sections:

Glass Mirrors
Plastic, Safety Mirrors
Hot Mirrors
Cold Mirrors
Front Surface Mirrors
One Way Mirrors


Please contact us for details of your project. Even if you do not see what you are looking for here, we may be able to help.

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