• Question: Where does light goes when a door is closed, leaving the room in darkness? Shouldn't there still be loads of light bouncing around?

    Asked by anon-106860 to Jim, Scott on 18 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Scott Lawrie

      Scott Lawrie answered on 18 Mar 2016:

      Great question! I wondered this once upon a time myself, too 🙂
      The thing is light moves SOOOOO quickly that even if you close the door as fast as you can, it’ll be like it’s standing still to light. By the time it’s closed, the light that is in the room WILL have bounced around a great many times. Every time the light reflects off a wall, it gets absorbed a bit by the paint etc. Even a really good mirror isn’t perfect at reflecting light – it absorbs some of it. Try standing between two mirrors to get an Infinite Mirror Trap! You’ll see loads of mirrors going off into the distance, but they get darker and greener far away because the light gets absorbed a bit at each reflection. So in summary, it gets dark in the room very quickly 🙂

    • Photo: Jim Barrett

      Jim Barrett answered on 18 Mar 2016:

      Most of it will eventually get aborbed by the walls and the doors eventually. If it was a room made of perfect mirrors, then you’re absolutely right, light would just bounce around forever!

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