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Question:
How do two way mirrors work?


Replies:
Have you ever been in a bright room and tried to look out the window on a dark night? All you can see is your own reflection in the window, right? That is because there just is not very much light coming in from outside, and there is a lot of light hitting the window from the inside, most of which goes out, but some of which gets reflected back. You just see yourself in the window, but anybody who is outside can see you very plainly through the window. You can imagine adding just a little bit of "silvering" to the window so that it reflects more of the light that hits it, and there you have a great device. I think that is what you meant by a two-way mirror, right?

Arthur Smith


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