REFLECTION OF LIGHT. 



305 



For this reason our reflection in FiG. 2 ST. 



a mirror seems to approach us when 

 ■we walk toward it, and to retire 

 from us as we retire. 



Upon the same principle, when 

 trees, buildings, or other objects 

 are reflected from the horizontal 

 surface of a pond, or other smooth 

 sheet of water, they appear in- 

 verted, since the light of the object, 

 reflected to our eyes from the 

 surface of the water, comes to us 

 with the same direction as it 

 would have done, had it proceeded 

 directly from an inverted object 

 in the water. 



In Fig. 238, the light proceed- 



YiQ 238 ^^o ^'"0^ the arrow-head. A, strikes the water 



Q at F, and is reflected to D, and that from 

 A ^Z the barb, B, strikes the water at E, and is 



..■■'X reflected to C. A spectator standing at G 



will see the reflected rays, E G and F G, as 

 if they proceeded directly from C and D, and 

 the image of the arrow will appear to be lo- 

 cated at C D. 



It is in accordance with the law that tho 

 angles of incidence are equal to the angles of 

 reflection, that a person is enabled to see his whole figure reflected from the 

 surface of a comparatively small mirror. Thus, in Fig. 239, let a person, C D, 

 Fig. 239. be placed at a suitable distance from a mir- 



ji J. ror, A B. The rays of hgbt, C A. proceed- 



ing from the head of the person, fall perpen- 

 dicularly upon the mirror, and are therefore 

 reflected back perpendicularly, or in tho 

 same line; the rays B D proceedmg from 

 the feet, however, fall obliquely upon the 

 mirror, and are therefore reflected obliquely, and reach the eye in the same 

 direction they would have taken had they proceeded from the point F behimd 

 the mirror. 



662, The quantity of light reflected from a 

 given surface, is not the same at all angles, or 

 inclinations. When the angle or inclination 

 with which a ray of light strikes upon a reflecting surface 

 is great, the amount of light reflected to the eye will be 



Is tho Baine 

 quantity of light 

 reflected at all 

 angles? 



