light

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From: Steve Miller (nanodog2@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Jun 12 2001 - 18:33:59 PDT 

From: "Steve Miller" <nanodog2@hotmail.com>
Subject: light
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 18:33:59 -0700
Message-ID: <F69bYZYs49erzh1FG09000195f6@hotmail.com>

In teaching light this Spring, I ran across a question I am not sure of:

When light is reflected, why does it carry the image of where it was
reflected from? When we see something, we see a light ray that may have been
reflected many times, but it only reveals where it most recently came from.

My answer - based on some discussion in Hewitt - is that when light
encounters mass, it doesn't just "bounce off". It actually interacts with
the mass, being absorbed and readmitted. Red light is reflected because the
molecules of the pigment resonate "perfectly" with all collors except red.

OK - assuming this to be true, why doesn't some of the energy get used up in
the reflection? If white light goes in, and something less comes out, what
is coming out?

Lots of big, naive questions looking for answers.

Thanks,

Steve
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