Mirrors ?

Brick Top

New Member
i went into my back yard and did a test. I took a large mirror and faced it at the sun, and i reflected to light from the sun Though a window in my house and lit up a wall..... how did i reflect light off a mirror if it aborbs the light?????? maybe my mirror must be broke or something. to be fair i will try a differnt mirror, because the one i use could have malfuntioned.

Only small amounts of light energy are absorbed by mirrors.





Mirrors come in two basic varieties. The most common are metallic mirrors like those found on the walls of Versailles or on medicine cabinets. Metallic mirrors work pretty well, but they have limitations. The most important is that they waste energy, absorbing a small fraction of the light that falls on them. That is because when light, which, like radio waves, is a form of electromagnetic radiation, strikes a metallic mirror the electrons in the metal move just as they do when a radio signal strikes an antenna. Pushing electrons around takes energy, which dims the reflected image. So metallic mirrors cannot be used in applications like communications and high-powered lasers, where minimizing energy loss is important.

From: M.I.T. Scientists Turn Simple Idea Into 'Perfect Mirror'
http://phys.lsu.edu/~jdowling/mit.html







 

doc111

Well-Known Member
A question was asked. The singular correct answer in the thread was given. Some want to reject it, others want to argue it and others question it.

Forget everything I posted. Do not bother to research what sort of light reflection horticultural sciences has long known is best for growing plants, ignore the effects of diffuse reflection in nature (ouside plant growing), don't bother to Google or to go to a book store or a library and pick up a book or three on the subject. Do not concern yourselves with proven facts and instead everyone should believe whatever it is they like, want or need to believe and go with that.
Good to see you back!:wink:
 

KushDog

Active Member
i agree they anit the best, but if that is what you have too use, it will work better than nothing at all, any and every thing aborbs light. if mylar is 95-99% refletive it is aborbing light...
if white paint reflects 85% of the light, that means it aborbs 15% of the light...

i would think a mirror reflects at least as much light as white paint. And in my back yard expeiment with the mirror shining in my house, i tryed it with a white peice of drywall and i don't think i even have to tell you that it did not reflect any visable light in to the house.
 

Brick Top

New Member
Good to see you back!:wink:
I'm not really back. I mostly lurk some now.

It's threads like this that remind me why I went from being very active to saying little to nothing and make me ask myself why I ever bother to lurk.

Albert fucking Einstein could come back to life and hold a conference with God and together come up with the singular correct answer to a question and there would still be some Beavis and Buttheads that would reject it or question it and some would claim to know better.

It's not wonder that many of the better growers that were members here have moved to other sites in roughly the last year. You reach a point where you want to say, it's obvious that the blind want to be led by the blind, so why should I keep them from getting their wish?
 

Brick Top

New Member
i agree they anit the best, but if that is what you have too use, it will work better than nothing at all, any and every thing aborbs light. if mylar is 95-99% refletive it is aborbing light...
if white paint reflects 85% of the light, that means it aborbs 15% of the light...

i would think a mirror reflects at least as much light as white paint. And in my back yard expeiment with the mirror shining in my house, i tryed it with a white peice of drywall and i don't think i even have to tell you that it did not reflect any visable light in to the house.
You need to get beyond percentage of reflectivity and begin to think about type of reflectivity. Plants would be better off with a reflective material that is 85% reflective but provides a highly diffuse reflection than a reflective material that is 96% to 99% reflective but provides a specular reflection.

But if you are going to remain hung up on mirrors high percentage of reflectivity and ignore all that horticultural science has long proven about diffuse reflection, then by all leans, go with mirrors.
 

theexpress

Well-Known Member
I'm not really back. I mostly lurk some now.

It's threads like this that remind me why I went from being very active to saying little to nothing and make me ask myself why I ever bother to lurk.

Albert fucking Einstein could come back to life and hold a conference with God and together come up with the singular correct answer to a question and there would still be some Beavis and Buttheads that would reject it or question it and some would claim to know better.

It's not wonder that many of the better growers that were members here have moved to other sites in roughly the last year. You reach a point where you want to say, it's obvious that the blind want to be led by the blind, so why should I keep them from getting their wish?
thought u were gone...... }:
 

KushDog

Active Member
i have used mirrors and they have worked. they reflected light and grew my plants.

what went wrong when you tryed to use mirrors in your grow? i am willing to hear from people with first hand exsperance .


The fact is they will and do work..... is there stuff that works better? sure. but for you to say it wont work is kinda biased.
 

Brick Top

New Member
i have used mirrors and they have worked. they reflected light and grew my plants.

what went wrong when you tryed to use mirrors in your grow? i am willing to hear from people with first hand exsperance .


The fact is they will and do work..... is there stuff that works better? sure. but for you to say it wont work is kinda biased.


Who said that mirrors; "won't work?" Not me. You cannot find a single message of mine where you can accurately quote me saying that mirrors; "won't work."

Sites like this are not supposed to be about what can be used even though it isn't very good, but it will work at least somewhat. Sites like this are not for teaching and learning Ghetto Growing 101. Sites like this are not for teaching how to create Rube Goldberg grow setups.

If a grower wants to become skilled they will want to know what is best, and when told what is best they will listen and accept. If they do not give a damn about ever becoming skilled they will question facts and doubt facts and reject facts and stick with what they 'think' is good enough, or in some cases better. They insist on attempting to reinvent the wheel, but their reinvented wheel always turns out to be square or triangle or rectangular.

But if that is good enough for them, why should I give a damn? It won't be my plants not being given the best possible growing conditions and environment possible. It will be theirs, so it will be their misery, not mine.
 

Brick Top

New Member
i went into my WHITE bath room and turned the light on, than i opened the medicine cabnet door (it has a mirror on it) and it reflected the light onto the WHITE wall and made it BRIGHTER...... I would of thought that since the WHITE wall reflects, and a Mirror absorbs light, i thoght it was weird that the mirror reflected more light?????????? don't belive me? go into your bath room and try it.

P.S. i just put a big mirror in my grow room to absorb some light, LOL smh

You went outside and shined a mirror into a room and it brightened it .. you went into a white bathroom and used the medicine cabinet mirror to reflect light on a white wall and it brightened it.

WOW! Those sure are higher tech and much more conclusive tests than M.I.T. has ever attempted, and they prove that scientific horticultural research was all incorrect.

There you have it folks ... conclusive proof, ultra high tech experiments performed in a back yard and a bathroom that have proven M.I.T. and others who have performed scientific research on light reflection all to have been totally wrong!

The Beavis & Butthead Institute of Scientific Research has once again proven PhDs and others to not know anything.

Listen to Kush Dog, gang. He is without doubt the leading expert on light reflection here.
 

Brick Top

New Member
This is part of something posted by Uncle Ben about The Positive Effect of Diffused versus Direct Light on Plant Health, Vigor and Yields.

That is of course the Uncle Ben who Dannyboy620 said this about: "Sup UB. I read a book by Jorge Cervantes recently and I read where he mentioned you. Man you do get around."



Experimental studies show that crops with a high plant canopy and ornamental plants with a small canopy can utilize diffused light better than direct light.

8mm Polygal Polymatte™ sheet provides 77% light transmission and 99% diffused light. Plants create food from light and the type of light they receive is important. Plants exposed to direct light (no diffusion) produce a majority of their food from the top leave facing the sun. These leaves do most of the work while the shaded leaves do very little work. Diffused light provides light to all leaves and all leaves are able to photosynthesize resulting in more food production and healthier, fuller plant development and less stress on the upper leaves.

http://www.polygal-northamerica.com/polymatte.php
Mirrors as a reflective material would of course reflect some light onto different areas of plants How much light it would be would be based on the angle the light first struck the mirrors and plant positioning. But mirrors would not spread out the light rays in as many different directions to as many different areas of plants or to as many different heights (levels on plants) due to specular reflection rather than diffused reflection.
 

KushDog

Active Member
i agree they dont difuse light, but they reflect it, at least my mirrors reflect light. I guess your's absorb light some how tho.



I am done, i am going to my grow room of mirrors and smoke a joint and think about why someone would think a mirror don't reflect light... lol
 

Brick Top

New Member
i agree they dont difuse light, but they reflect it, at least my mirrors reflect light. I guess your's absorb light some how tho.

Well, I never have and never will waste my time by making the mistake of using mirrors for a reflective material. But how in the wide, wide world of sports did you manage to miss where it was clearly stated, more than just once, that only a small fraction of light is absorbed by mirrors? You keep twisting what has been said and attempting to make it appear as if myself, or someone else, has claimed that mirrors are like black holes and totally absorb all light. No one has come anywhere close to stating that. Nowhere close.

But you act as if that is what has been claimed so you can then attempt to make what you made up, and attributed to others, to sound silly by saying; "i agree they dont difuse light, but they reflect it, at least my mirrors reflect light. I guess your's absorb light some how tho."

Sites like this would have a whole lot less arguments if people would respond to what was actually said, and only to what was actually said,rather than altering it, adding to it, embellishing it just so they could then be able to write a reply like they would like to, a response that of course is fully dependent on first having what was actually said being altered in a way to that would then make the response appear to be a valid and rationale response.

Since you clearly missed it earlier, here it is again.

"Mirrors come in two basic varieties. The most common are metallic mirrors like those found on the walls of Versailles or on medicine cabinets. Metallic mirrors work pretty well, but they have limitations. The most important is that they waste energy, absorbing a small fraction of the light that falls on them. That is because when light, which, like radio waves, is a form of electromagnetic radiation, strikes a metallic mirror the electrons in the metal move just as they do when a radio signal strikes an antenna. Pushing electrons around takes energy, which dims the reflected image. So metallic mirrors cannot be used in applications like communications and high-powered lasers, where minimizing energy loss is important."


From: M.I.T. Scientists Turn Simple Idea Into 'Perfect Mirror'
http://phys.lsu.edu/~jdowling/mit.html


But of course that just has to be incorrect, right, KushDog? I mean, you have know far more about mirrors, what with your little backyard experiment and your little bathroom experiment than M.I.T. Scientists could EVER begin to know about mirrors, right KushDog?
 

mrmadcow

Well-Known Member
I was .. or was at the most lurking ... and this single thread might be enough to get me to return to just lurking and hanging around elsewhere.
dont get discouraged! many are willing to listen & helped by your advise. personnaly, I doubt everyone until I verify their advice & you are one of the very few that I no longer verify.
Brick top, there is always 1 in every crowd.let me pass you some advice from my father.
never argue w/ an idiot, they will drag you down to their level & beat you w/ experience
in that spirit
Kushdog,good for you, you keep using your mirrors,Im sure they are the best thing for you.
for anyone else that says mirrors work great,I have grown in a dark brown cardboard box,does that mean brown cardboard has great reflective abilities?

for everyone else,I have seen studies that show mirrors only reflect about as much light as yellow paint or al foil and much less light than white paint or mylar but don't take my word for it & dont ask me to do your research for you.
 

skunkd0c

Well-Known Member
i heard some folk who want to do this on the cheap using mylar blankets (emergency/survival blankets for camping n shit
lol .. you can prolly get them from walmart
 
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