The substance that reflects light in the mirror is not mercury

Mercury-coated mirrors were not very capable of reflecting light, were time-consuming to make, and mercury was toxic, so they were later eliminated. Now the mirror, the back is a thin layer of silver. This layer of silver is not coated or electroplated, it is coated by a chemical "silver mirror reaction".

Add glucose water to the ammonia solution of silver nitrate, and the glucose reduces the invisible silver ions into silver particles, which are deposited on the glass to make a silver mirror, and finally painted with a layer of lacquer. Seeing this, you will say, "The thing that shines on the back of the mirror is not mercury, it is silver."

This conclusion is behind the times again! In recent years, many mirrors in department stores have been aluminized on their backs. Aluminum is a silvery-white shiny metal that is much cheaper than precious silver.

The manufacture of aluminum mirrors is to evaporate aluminum in a vacuum, and the aluminum vapor condenses on the glass surface to become a thin layer of aluminum film, which shines brightly. This kind of aluminum mirror is inexpensive and promising. In this way, you will say:

I can't imagine that a small mirror is also developing and changing! There are several chemicals on the back of it alone. ”

No. It should be silver.

Both the thermos gall and the mirror are used to react with a glucose solution and a silver ammonia solution to obtain a silver mirror.

After the secret of mirror-making was revealed, people improved it and used chemical methods to coat the glass with a very thin layer of silver, which was clearer than mercury mirrors, and saved labor and money.

As for the mirror we use now, it is plated with aluminum on the back. It can reflect almost 100% of the light, and even better than aluminum mirrors is indium mirrors made of indium, which has the strongest reflective ability among metals.

That's silver, mercury kills, and mercury is liquid at room temperature......

In the case of the same medium, the thicker the light, the slower the speed of light, which affects the various properties of light, silver or aluminum, and finally brush a layer of lacquer, mercury is toxic, it is no longer used, silver is coated with the "silver mirror reaction" in the chemical method; However, the thickness of the glass has an effect on the speed of light, and the speed of light is different for different mediums. However, from the point of view of reflection, it has no effect, and the angle of reflection is only related to the density of the medium and the glass before incidence.

Because the mirror is made of glass. Glucose water is added to the ammonia aqueous solution of silver nitrate, and the glucose reduces the invisible silver ions into silver particles, which are deposited on the glass to make a silver mirror, and the aluminum vapor condenses on the glass surface to become a thin aluminum film.

Addendum: Optically speaking, reflective coatings do not have an effect on reflections, i.e. a virtual image is generated by reflective coatings.

But there are already a lot of mirrors in the store that have aluminized backs. Aluminum is a silvery-white shiny metal that is much cheaper than precious silver. Manufacture of aluminum mirrors. Glass, on the other hand, creates reflections.

Therefore, there will be ghosting, which is the evaporation of aluminum in a vacuum, and vice versa, the closer the two virtual images are together, and the other virtual image is produced by the glass surface.

The thicker the lower glass, the more dispersed the two virtual images are.