The Most Reflective Mirror In The World

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  • Опубликовано: 10 авг 2023
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Комментарии • 1,2 тыс.

  • @Ghost812many
    @Ghost812many 11 месяцев назад +85

    I wanna see a car wrapped with it...

  • @jhonbus
    @jhonbus 11 месяцев назад +372

    I'm sure our distant ancestors would be gratified to see that even after thousands of years, people are still excited by shiny stuff.

    • @thevegastan
      @thevegastan 10 месяцев назад +5

      It's called Shiny Object Syndrome

    • @flat-earther
      @flat-earther 10 месяцев назад

      hi jhonbus have you become a flat earther yet?

    • @user-AKA.KadarKhan
      @user-AKA.KadarKhan 10 месяцев назад +3

      😂😅

    • @michaelbuckers
      @michaelbuckers 10 месяцев назад +3

      OOH SHINY * neuron activation *

    • @chadschoening4352
      @chadschoening4352 10 месяцев назад +2

      So you're saying there is a small piece of this material in every cell phone with a screen?
      *exits to disassemble old cell phone.

  • @sinebar
    @sinebar 11 месяцев назад +675

    Dielectric mirrors are used in gas lasers because they're nearly 100% reflective. The dielectric coatings can be tuned to the specific wavelength of the laser.

    • @pyrocrabb12
      @pyrocrabb12 11 месяцев назад +5

      Is there a way to aim a laser through the mirror at another mirror for an attempted infinite beam bounce reflection? 99.5% is close,what if it was 100%?

    • @oggimaster
      @oggimaster 11 месяцев назад

      @@pyrocrabb12 Yes thats how a laser works in most cases. Between those two mirrors (also called resonator mirrors, the whole thing is a resonator) is a laser medium. For gas lasers it is some type of gas for example helium and neon. For solid state lasers it is some type of crystal like Ti:sapphire. To get the actual laser light out of theses media, it has to be pumped. Pumping means in this application, that you take some kind of light source with the right light spectrum, shoot it into to the resonator where the light passes through the medium many times, absorbs this light and energetically excite parts of the medium into a higher state. This state is not stable and the media gets rid of the energy in form of light. Then the medium is in his energetically base state, where it can be excited again. Since these resonator mirrors doesnt reflect 100% of the light, you can make them so thin, that a tiny amount of laser light escapes through a tine hole (not in the mirror but in the housing behind the mirror) and can use for experiments. In general a laser needs much more electrical power than comes out of the laser as optical power. They are quite inefficient. The reason we use lasers is due to the long coherence length, where most of the light has the same phase and wavelength. We have a ideal, predictable light source. We can also build optics without major optical aberrations and therefore focus the light into such small spaces, that we achieve optical power densitys of MW per cm^2 and more.
      This description lacks some details, because of my language barrier and some details being a little bit difficult to explain.

    • @float32
      @float32 11 месяцев назад +48

      @@pyrocrabb1299.5% isn’t close to 100%! It’s infinitely far from it. The intensity will be only 1% after 918 bounces: log(0.01)/log(0.995) = 918.7
      Percent left = (percent reflectivity/100)^bounces
      99.9999% would be 1% brightness after about 5 million bounces.

    • @pyrocrabb12
      @pyrocrabb12 11 месяцев назад +2

      @@float32 Is 100% possible?

    • @TiSapph
      @TiSapph 11 месяцев назад

      ​@@pyrocrabb12 Kind of, it's called an optical cavity. You don't actually need a fancy way to get the light in, you can just straight up shoot it through the first mirror. Sounds weird, but it works:
      The ~0.5% that don't get reflected, instead go through the first mirror and enter the space between the mirrors (the cavity). This light will bounce back and fourth between the two mirrors for a while. During that time, more and more light is leaking through the first mirror, so that the light inside the cavity actually builds up quite strong (this only works at a specific wavelength!). In fact it will be much stronger inside the cavity than the original laser beam you sent onto the first mirror! If you get the alignment right, actually the light inside the cavity will be so strong that the little bit that leaks back out (so also the ~0.5%, but this time from the inside to outside) will be exactly as strong as the original laser you sent in.
      So on the first mirror you have the ~99.5% light being reflected directly, but also the light leaking back out of the cavity. These two beams will cancel each other out entirely, because light is a wave. So you actually have no reflection at all! The second mirror also leaks ~0.5% of the light, so you have a beam as strong as the input laser coming out of the second mirror.
      (TLDR:) Which means: if you get the wavelength and alignment right, it's as if the two mirrors were completely transparent! No matter how reflective they actually are! I personally got about 5% of light transmitting through two mirrors with a reflectivity of around 99.9998%.
      Also you can just make the light inside the cavity. That's what pretty much all lasers do.

  • @TheMaryWriter
    @TheMaryWriter 11 месяцев назад +1963

    I’m wondering how this would look in a room of the darkest paint when used with a single small light source.

    • @Enhancedlies
      @Enhancedlies 11 месяцев назад +181

      modern art

    • @towerofresonance4877
      @towerofresonance4877 11 месяцев назад +52

      ​@@Enhancedliesgod

    • @lbgstzockt8493
      @lbgstzockt8493 11 месяцев назад +56

      Very dark, you would just see the walls which are black

    • @jwalster9412
      @jwalster9412 11 месяцев назад +6

      ​@@Enhancedlieshow the translation?

    • @nargacugalover
      @nargacugalover 11 месяцев назад +7

      @@lbgstzockt8493 I love living in a room of ⬛

  • @RockLeeMC
    @RockLeeMC 11 месяцев назад +203

    the accidental discovery of the rolled up dielectric behavior during a meeting is always fascinating. love hearing about these things.

    • @theoriginalchefboyoboy6025
      @theoriginalchefboyoboy6025 11 месяцев назад +22

      "fidgeting", as it's commonly called, is a valid scientific process...

    • @dennisaleander5175
      @dennisaleander5175 11 месяцев назад

      I wander if that engineer is one one of many who worked for the DOD in order to create the invisibility camouflage for military ships. If that’s the case than I doubt it was really a accidental discovery.

    • @MikkoRantalainen
      @MikkoRantalainen 11 месяцев назад +3

      The important part is understanding that the visual result you get was unexpected even for an expert and therefore worth further research.

    • @circuit_autopsy
      @circuit_autopsy 10 месяцев назад +3

      This reminds me when i was kid, one time i was folding a clear plastic bag to have similar effect

    • @x_mau9355
      @x_mau9355 7 месяцев назад +1

      the meeting was BORING to say less.

  • @robertlapointe4093
    @robertlapointe4093 11 месяцев назад +144

    The technology for making this material (some very fancy laminar flow extrusion dies) was developed at Dow Chemical's Michigan Division in the mid 1980's. As usual, Dow couldn't find their butts with both hands and didn't think it would ever have a large enough market to be worth their time, so they sold it to 3M. Fun fact, if the two different polymers are both transparent elastomers, then you get a wavelength selective reflector that can be adjusted by stretching (which makes the individual layers thinner). The pieces I saw demonstrated could go from fully reflective in visible light to fully transparent with about a 3X stretch. In between would give some interesting polychromic Moire patterns.

    • @TiSapph
      @TiSapph 11 месяцев назад +5

      That's interesting, thanks! I would have thought they just sputter coat them, but this is way more economical

    • @2lstGun
      @2lstGun 11 месяцев назад +6

      And now I want to see what happens if you wrap a car in the elastomer version and apply different stretch/tension across it. Would be a pretty funky look.

    • @robertlapointe4093
      @robertlapointe4093 11 месяцев назад +19

      @@2lstGun At the time I saw the stuff demonstrated at Dow (late '88 or early '89), they had been working with Ford for a few years and they showed a Taurus that had a lower layer count film (like a partially silvered one-way mirror) molded on to the exterior of the turn-signal/marker-light assemblies and applied to the windows. The rest of the car was polished and clear coated, giving the effect of a seamless silver bubble. Sort of the ultimate urban camouflage, although driving a near invisible car seemed like the worst idea ever (about what I would expect from a Dow/Ford collaboration).

    • @samj4971
      @samj4971 2 месяца назад +1

      hi @robertlapointe4093, I am currently working on a product in optics which requires high reflectance, is it possible we could connect if you are interested?

    • @robertlapointe4093
      @robertlapointe4093 2 месяца назад

      @@samj4971 I was not directly involved in the project and only got a glimpse of the products they were making, so I doubt I could be of any help. I am not sure if 3M is making any of this material now or not. Searching for 3M reflective material only brings up links to their retroreflective products, which I suspect is not what you are interested in.

  • @bricology
    @bricology 11 месяцев назад +349

    Since this material is so flexible, I would love to see a _cylindrical_ room with the wall(s?) covered with it!

    • @Bran317
      @Bran317 11 месяцев назад +13

      I always thought what it would look like in a perfect mirror like bubble that ur inside of

    • @ab2tract
      @ab2tract 11 месяцев назад +1

      pull up your selfie cam and point it at a mirror...

    • @DipJyotiDeka
      @DipJyotiDeka 11 месяцев назад +18

      Well if you turn on a light, you'll probably get blind.

    • @LiborTinka
      @LiborTinka 11 месяцев назад +1

      ...or a room-size unilluminable room

    • @KremitDeFrog
      @KremitDeFrog 11 месяцев назад +6

      you mean a Kozyrev Mirror?

  • @DGRIFF
    @DGRIFF 11 месяцев назад +37

    In 2012, I used to run the largest cell phone service and repair store in the country. I frequently disected screens and never knew what that thin reflective backing was for! That's so cool, I knew how backlighting worked and at one point realized that phone displays went from having multiple visible led lights that would be brighter at the edge of the screen, to suddenly not having any visible light and a homogeneously lit screen.

  • @ge2719
    @ge2719 11 месяцев назад +121

    i wonder if this would improve the effect of an infinity mirror. since the near side has to be a one way reflective mirror film some brightness will always be lost with each reflection, but it should make the effect brighter over all and give a deeper infinity

    • @AmaroqStarwind
      @AmaroqStarwind 7 месяцев назад

      There's actually no such thing as a one-way mirror, I'm afraid...

    • @shenmisheshou7002
      @shenmisheshou7002 7 месяцев назад +2

      Yes, it would improve the performance but there is more to the story. I think you are talking about a "first surface mirror." In a first surface mirror, the reflective coating is appled to the side facing you ( for facing the second mirror in an infinity mirror setup.) A first surface mirror is far more reflective than a standard mirror because with a standard mirror, the light has to pass though the glass to get to the coating, the it has to reflect off of the coatiing where there is some loss, and back though the glass. Standard float glass has a transmission of only about 90% so the loss from each mirror would be considerable, so yes, you use first surface mirrors for a good effect. The problem with using dialectic is that it is very expensive to apply so a large infinity mirror would be super expensive. It would indeed improve the depth of an infinity mirror though. A cheap infinity mirror gets dark really fast because they are using standard mirrors. An infinity mirror made with high enhanced, protected aluminum will do almost as well at a far lower cost, but it would still be quite expensive for a larger mirrors. (Enhanced Aluminnim with special coatings can have a 93% reflectiity, so that is not all that much less than dieletcric, but even protected enhanced aluminum is fairly expensive, thouhgh I have no doubt that it would be less than a dieletric of the same size.

  • @birdnird
    @birdnird 11 месяцев назад +24

    Imagine using this in a solartube or something like it, to bring natural light deep into buildings

  • @Daivd1111
    @Daivd1111 11 месяцев назад +33

    What an amazing video! yet another case of 'how amazing the stuff is around us that you don't even know' explained in a concise video.

  • @SwissPGO
    @SwissPGO 11 месяцев назад +20

    The principle even works for (soft) x-rays - I used it 30 years ago to build x-ray lasers. For harder x-rays, crystals can be used.

    • @AuxiliaryPanther
      @AuxiliaryPanther 11 месяцев назад +2

      X-rays can be soft or hard?

    • @SwissPGO
      @SwissPGO 11 месяцев назад +5

      @@AuxiliaryPanther Soft x-rays vs hard x-rays is a question of their energy. Typically soft x-rays are considered those that have energy up to about 10 keV (kilo electron-volt). The border between extreme UV light, soft x-rays, hard x-rays and gamma rays is not strictly defined: it mostly depends on applications or the type of light sources, but the more energy, the "harder" the radiation gets.

    • @ChemEDan
      @ChemEDan 11 месяцев назад

      @@AuxiliaryPanther I used to think hard water meant ice. I wasn't wrong!

    • @AuxiliaryPanther
      @AuxiliaryPanther 11 месяцев назад

      @@SwissPGO okay, so higher amplitude x-rays are "harder". Thanks!

    • @SwissPGO
      @SwissPGO 11 месяцев назад +4

      @@AuxiliaryPanther Hmmm, not "amplitude" but energy of the photon, amplitude is not a term used very often in relation to light sources. Brightness would be a better term. Brightness relates to the amount of photons emitted, not the energy of the individual photon, so there could be equally bright soft and hard x-ray sources. The terminology soft vs hard x-rays is related to the energy of the individual photons. Shorter wavelength photons have more energy, and have a deeper penetration into matter before they are absorbed, scattered or reflected. Thats why they are called harder than longer wavelength photons. it's like comparing a nerf gun's ammo (soft) to a 9mm bullet (hard).

  • @raulsaavedra709
    @raulsaavedra709 11 месяцев назад +8

    Just as amazing as the darkest/most light-absorbing materials, the most reflective! Didn't know about this, what a great video! Thanks a lot!

  • @michaelpipkin9942
    @michaelpipkin9942 11 месяцев назад +7

    I'm 40, I don't need a mirror that shows more of me...

  • @hexerey
    @hexerey 11 месяцев назад +656

    It would be so cool to see you make a mirrored room like you've done before made of this stuff.

    • @jryde421
      @jryde421 11 месяцев назад +18

      That would be amazing

    • @Enzi_Meteori_902
      @Enzi_Meteori_902 11 месяцев назад +14

      Was gonna say this too 😂

    • @jooei2810
      @jooei2810 11 месяцев назад

      @@InstagramUser420Google translate fails on this post.

    • @jooei2810
      @jooei2810 11 месяцев назад +32

      Might be pretty expensive.

    • @TheChzoronzon
      @TheChzoronzon 11 месяцев назад +10

      @@InstagramUser420 Oh, a wild edgelord appears!! *yawn

  • @mag31316
    @mag31316 11 месяцев назад +35

    The reflective effect layering has on this polymer reminds me of mica rock. Its reflective and shiny but you can peel off the thin rock layers and each of them are transparent! I wonder if a similar effect is going on there?

    • @peterfranks7619
      @peterfranks7619 10 месяцев назад

      Pikes peak has a lot of that stuff.

    • @spolo123
      @spolo123 10 месяцев назад +1

      Had the same thought about mica. On another level, x-rays telescope use several layers of metal sheets in order to reflect them

    • @VoltisArt
      @VoltisArt 7 месяцев назад +1

      Good observation. The crystal structure probably is doing something very similar, but locally limited to more particular angles than the randomized structure of the polymer.

  • @u1zha
    @u1zha 11 месяцев назад +7

    Wow, again a mindblowing quickie on something I hadn't ever heard about. 👍
    Though I did get lost in the transition, how we went from a spaghetti-like structure that seems to reflect all kinds of ambient light very well, to a precision structure of flat layers that's tailored for reflecting a particular wavelength...

    • @fewwiggle
      @fewwiggle 10 месяцев назад

      I don't think he claimed that a single layer of the 'spaghetti' material was reflective -- apparently it is transparent.
      I believe he only mentioned the 'spaghetti' in regards to polarization -- in this case the non-polarization of light.
      Anyway, as I understand it, the film is many layers (of varying thickness) of the transparent 'spaghetti' material and that's where the reflectance comes from.

  • @toilet_water2520
    @toilet_water2520 11 месяцев назад +5

    This channel is gold

  • @CuriosityCore101
    @CuriosityCore101 10 месяцев назад +2

    I'd love to see the videos about the room made of mirrors and the inside of a spherical mirror done again using this stuff!

  • @drfroglegs
    @drfroglegs 11 месяцев назад +1

    Really fascinating. Thanks for this video. One of your best ones.

  • @IanGrams
    @IanGrams 10 месяцев назад +5

    That's pretty neat. I wonder if this material could be tuned to reflect IR but allow visible light to pass through. I'd love a film to apply to windows that keeps the heat out without blocking the light. The existing commercial options seem to have mixed reviews.

    • @iha10512
      @iha10512 9 месяцев назад

      and in cold areas it should switch

  • @z0mb13h0rd3
    @z0mb13h0rd3 11 месяцев назад +88

    You touched upon those mirrors that can be used to reflect a specific wavelength of light, I would have liked to hear more about those!
    I used to work in color darkrooms that has both additive and subtractive color enlargers, so I can already foresee modern uses, but your take and research would be fascinating.
    Thanks.

    • @HeyChickens
      @HeyChickens 11 месяцев назад +1

      Gotta be careful when touching on those mirrors- you might leave a fingerprint and cut down on their reflectivity!

    • @TheUnderscore_
      @TheUnderscore_ 11 месяцев назад +4

      It's already used commonly for lasers.

    • @z0mb13h0rd3
      @z0mb13h0rd3 11 месяцев назад

      @@TheUnderscore_ I figured as much, and can appreciate some high gains in efficiency for a relatively low cost material.

    • @TiSapph
      @TiSapph 11 месяцев назад

      They are the most used mirrors in optics laboratories. They are pretty cheap nowadays, just look on thorlabs or similar distributors. I don't even remember when I last used a metal mirror.
      Making them reflective for just a small range of wavelengths is actually much easier than making a broadband mirror. But it's just thin film optics, if you stack enough layers you can make any arbitrary wavelength filter. Usually when they are specifically made to be very reflective for some wavelengths and very transmissive for others, they are called dichroic mirrors.
      "99.5%" isn't a hard limit either. If you stack enough layers (aka pay the manufacturer enough) you can make stupidly reflective mirrors. We have some that reflect all but ~2 millionth of the light, so 99.9998% reflectivity. But really except for optical cavities, the 99% you get from something like a BB1-E02 is more than enough

    • @YSPACElabs
      @YSPACElabs 11 месяцев назад +4

      They're called dichroic mirrors

  • @Oldgreycowboy
    @Oldgreycowboy 11 месяцев назад +1

    Great stuff. I enjoy watching your videos. Entertaining & very informative. Love your teaching skills.

  • @ragingwillie483
    @ragingwillie483 10 месяцев назад

    love this type of stuff. THANK YOU!

  • @loganreidy7055
    @loganreidy7055 11 месяцев назад +5

    I know for most LASERs similar products are used both for the reflector and the output coupler. Out of curiosity have you tried putting a piece of that on both ends of a lasing material to make an open cavity laser? Maybe niodimiun YAG and a flashlight with a blue bandpass filter

  • @vernonzehr
    @vernonzehr 11 месяцев назад +22

    The first thing that popped into my head was all those infinity mirror crafting projects. How much better would they look using this type of mirror? Or course this stuff probably costs as much as a used car for anything larger that and a playing card.

    • @icedbear
      @icedbear 11 месяцев назад +7

      It's not so expensive, found some for $30 for 11"x11".

    • @TheActionLab
      @TheActionLab  11 месяцев назад +20

      This 3M ESR film isn't sold to the public unfortunately It is only sold to manufacturers that use it in products. And they wouldn't tell me who they sell it to. Dielectric mirrors in general, are available but not as high reflectivity as this 3M one.

    • @mxcollin95
      @mxcollin95 11 месяцев назад +3

      @@TheActionLabwhy are they unwilling to sell to the public?

    • @HeyChickens
      @HeyChickens 11 месяцев назад +5

      ​@@mxcollin95Probably has something to do with it being a relatively newer product without a lot of research to be able to know what potentially could go wrong if it got into the wrong hands. That barrier would quickly get broken if there were a huge public demand, but if there isn't a huge demand, the manufacturers may just want to protect themselves from some frivolous lawsuit from somebody that used this film on a slightly curved window of his house and ended up starting a fire inside his neighbor's house because it focused the sunlight to a dot through a window to a wall at 30 feet away inside his neighbor's bedroom. A mirror could theoretically do the same thing, but nobody could sue a mirror manufacturer, because normal mirrors have already been in use for countless decades. But this film is quite new and untested in raw public wholesale. So they probably just don't want to end up getting sued over something stupid like that. Or maybe if somebody used it to make a weapon, the manufacturer could get sued unless this product gets recognized as a standard household material first.

    • @mxcollin95
      @mxcollin95 11 месяцев назад

      @@HeyChickens ya…good points.

  • @josephpaulduffey873
    @josephpaulduffey873 11 месяцев назад

    Amazing stuff! Always the most awesome videos Action Lab. 💯

  • @jimmcdougall9973
    @jimmcdougall9973 11 месяцев назад +2

    As always, very interesting. Thank you.

  • @mechanicalcowboy3242
    @mechanicalcowboy3242 11 месяцев назад +6

    I wonder if they could lay this material down on a rigid substrate to make a telescope mirror?

  • @sergiovigueras9314
    @sergiovigueras9314 11 месяцев назад +5

    excelente video, gracias por crear este contenido, sacas a la luz temas que son asombrosos y que nunca nos detenemos a pensar. 🤩🤯

  • @netpilot5
    @netpilot5 11 месяцев назад +1

    Extremely well explained!

  • @janetmichaels5040
    @janetmichaels5040 7 месяцев назад

    It is perfect for you to teach. Thank you. Do not stop.

  • @400and4
    @400and4 11 месяцев назад +4

    Wow. This is actually super interesting. I bet that getting one framed must be incredibly expensive. I'd love to play around with some though.

  • @iambiggus
    @iambiggus 11 месяцев назад +7

    Seems like this would make a great reflector for telescopes. Lightweight, cheap (comparatively), and easy to work with. Just need a solid backplate for it you could construct out of a suitable material of your choice.

    • @darrell857
      @darrell857 11 месяцев назад +6

      it looks like the secondary reflections have the same angle, but are offset by some distance from the original reflection. I think that would cause point light sources to look blurry/hazy on a curved mirror. Apparently it will work fine for flat mirrors, there are 90-degree eyepieces that have this as well as binoculars which have two 90's per eye.

    • @rasmus619
      @rasmus619 11 месяцев назад +2

      Especially if it could be made in a parabolic shape. Also for the type of telelenses that use mirrors it would enable some really lightweight long telelenses

    • @Krzysztof_z_Bagien
      @Krzysztof_z_Bagien 10 месяцев назад +2

      It would not be easy (or probably even possible) to shape it to the right figure. A mirror, to be actually usable in a telescope, must have its surface shape (and roughness) error lower than about 100 nanometers or better (for visible light), and must be rigid enough not to deform under its own weight and ideally not expand/contract when temperature changes.
      It's relatively easy to achieve that level of precision when polishing glass (it's also can be done with metals, but they have much higher thermal expansion), and when you cover it with vaporized aluminium it has about 92% reflectivity in visible light - but there actually are dielectric mirrors used in telescopes, but often not for main mirrors, but rather eg. in diagonals (though you can get a higher reflectivity coating for your main mirror if you want and have money for it); they are made of glass coated with thin layers of dielectric material, so they work like what we see here, but also keep the shape of the glass.
      Dielectric coatings are more expensive though, and 99% vs "only" 92% isn't an improvement enough to make it vialabe option for larger mirrors - it probably would be cheaper to make a slightly bigger, aluminium coated mirror to compensate for slightly lower reflectivity. Or you can simply expose your target for a little longer to gather more light, which doesn't cost anything.
      I know that in most telescopes there are two or more mirrors actually, so loss of light is somewhat greater due to multiple reflections, but still good old aluminium is the most cost effective.

    • @rasmus619
      @rasmus619 10 месяцев назад +1

      @@Krzysztof_z_Bagien so light weight tele lenses for cameras is perhaps more obvious - though not simple...

    • @Krzysztof_z_Bagien
      @Krzysztof_z_Bagien 10 месяцев назад +2

      @@rasmus619 same rules apply to photographic lenses. I don't really see how this stuff could be used in optics that wouldn't be to much trouble to be worth it. I'm pretty sure its surface quality isn't anywhere near what you need to make an optical mirror.
      But maybe I'm wrong.

  • @xzendor7digitalartcreations
    @xzendor7digitalartcreations 10 месяцев назад

    I learned something new. Thanks for the thorough explanation.

  • @thomasraywood679
    @thomasraywood679 11 месяцев назад

    Thank you for making reflection clear.

  • @joepeach997
    @joepeach997 10 месяцев назад +3

    This is one of the most fascinating items I never knew about until now! Could it be used to increase the output of solar panels? It just seems like there are so many applications this could be used to enhance, from LEDs to optical devices and much more! What a great video and thank you.

    • @oljobo
      @oljobo 10 месяцев назад

      Yeah! Fascinating thought!

  • @HelloKittyFanMan.
    @HelloKittyFanMan. 11 месяцев назад +11

    Great, thanks for this video, James! Now, I think a lot of us have seen thin plastic mirrors a lot before, but since this is a special type, I guess it would be a lot harder to get. How would we go about getting some of that?

    • @zapperone7
      @zapperone7 11 месяцев назад +1

      He replied in another comment that 3M does not sell it to us commoners unfortunately. I had the same thought!

    • @HelloKittyFanMan.
      @HelloKittyFanMan. 11 месяцев назад

      @@zapperone7: Oh, sorry I missed that. Well then I wonder how they set him apart of someone who "qualified." And I wonder why.

  • @anthonyshiels9273
    @anthonyshiels9273 10 месяцев назад

    When I was in high school I was entered into a science competition.
    My project was to illustrate Brewster 's Law which states that you get maximum polarisation of the reflected light when the tangent of the angle of incidence is numerically equal to the refractive index of the reflecting medium.
    Thank you for the happy memories from the December 1973 Aer Lingus Young Scientists Exhibition.

  • @terawattyear
    @terawattyear 11 месяцев назад

    Great subject and fascinating video. Thx!

  • @dancoulson6579
    @dancoulson6579 10 месяцев назад +3

    I wonder if this could be used as a reflector behind the halogen lamps in car headlights.
    It seems like a good application.

  • @synapse349
    @synapse349 11 месяцев назад +4

    I got some of the 3m dichroic film. It shines red green or gold depending on viewing angle but transmits blue violet and purple and is extremely reflective
    But when stuck to a mirror all the color destructively interferes and it vanishes.

  • @BBROPHOTO
    @BBROPHOTO 10 месяцев назад +1

    This is why this is used in telescope accessories like diagonals to minimise any light loss :) Which is super important for light that is already crazy faint.

  • @jelleloef5207
    @jelleloef5207 9 месяцев назад

    Hey man, i love what you do!
    I've watched a lot of your videos and you always get your toppics right on! :)
    Thx for all your interesting content

  • @beyondinsanitybr
    @beyondinsanitybr 11 месяцев назад +5

    I was wondering if this mirror was the one used in the James Webb telescope and if not, what was. And also, wrapping a car with this material would be awesome! It could render it almost invisible!

    • @jurajvariny6034
      @jurajvariny6034 11 месяцев назад +8

      JWST mirror was coated with gold. There were many requirements other than maximizing reflectivity. For example this is made from plastic and many types of plastic are releasing volatiles when placed in vacuum. They would foul up the precision optics.

    • @JinKee
      @JinKee 11 месяцев назад +3

      wrapping just the skirt and air dam of a car and driving in the desert would make the car body appear to float like Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder

  • @untoldentity
    @untoldentity 11 месяцев назад +3

    please do an infinity room, I remember seeing an older video of yours that you did this with regular mirrors and said that due to the abortion of light it stops after just a few repetitions, but I really want to see this done with these mirrors :)

  • @brando3342
    @brando3342 11 месяцев назад +2

    Wow! I finally know what that shiny film is inside all those electronic devices I have taken apart over the years. Learn something new every day!

  • @d4slaimless
    @d4slaimless 11 месяцев назад +2

    I've seen a lot of this reflective films, but I never actually checked how it is made. The fact that it doesn't contain any metal is something didn't know. The mechanism is easy to understand, just never thought of it.

  • @DragonOfTheMortalKombat
    @DragonOfTheMortalKombat 11 месяцев назад +7

    So now you make a room out of this mirror and compare it to the black 3.0, right ?

  • @vexillian
    @vexillian 11 месяцев назад +4

    Uh oh. You know what comes next right? "This is the most reflective room in the world."

  • @francescaa8331
    @francescaa8331 6 месяцев назад

    This is such a fun channel. Thank you.

  • @earld1403
    @earld1403 11 месяцев назад

    It may seem like a small thing but thanks for mentioning that you got this as a sample.
    So many science channels will show something and then I spend hours trying to find out where they got it from.
    Since this was a sample given to you, I know that I probably don't need to spend hours trying to find it for sale.

  • @brfisher1123
    @brfisher1123 11 месяцев назад +3

    Interesting, I always thought that in order to make a "mirror" like that a metal *MUST* be included; I thought that was just some plastic with a very thin metallic coating!

  • @carlswenson5403
    @carlswenson5403 11 месяцев назад +4

    3m is badass. pretty sure they're responsible for literally tens of thousands of crazy materials

  • @zacharysherry2910
    @zacharysherry2910 11 месяцев назад

    Mind-blowing as usual!

  • @ColtonBrummell
    @ColtonBrummell 11 месяцев назад

    Excellent work sir!

  • @christmassnow3465
    @christmassnow3465 11 месяцев назад +3

    That reminds me when I put many nylon sheets atop one another, I end-up with a blurred metallic sheen, and not a murky milky color. Of course, the nylon sheets are too thick and the alternating nylon/air interface between the layers does not have the right thickness and refractive index. On the other hand, what if you use instead of a polymer a much more transparent material like the one for fiber-optics? Another question, does it let light through if directed at a right angle?

    • @HeyChickens
      @HeyChickens 11 месяцев назад +2

      Very true! I hadn't thought about that! It does look like a mirror when you stack those sheets together!

  • @Secret_Takodachi
    @Secret_Takodachi 11 месяцев назад +8

    I would love to see them roll up a 6 foot length of this material to replicate the "flashlight effect " ❤
    C'mon 3M you know your own engineers have likely done it already dozens of times with that material, donate a few feet more "for the cause of cool stuff every deserves to get seen" 👍 (even if that cool stuff is highly reflective hahaha)

    • @JT.777
      @JT.777 11 месяцев назад

      That's a great idea!👍

    • @FireChronos
      @FireChronos 11 месяцев назад +1

      I've been wondering if they can use it to make a flashlight that doesn't need a traditional power source. I wouldn't know how to get the shape just right though.

    • @WalterSamuels
      @WalterSamuels 10 месяцев назад +2

      Why would you need a flashlight in an environment that has light? @@FireChronos

    • @FireChronos
      @FireChronos 10 месяцев назад

      All environments have light, it's just a question of how much. @@WalterSamuels

  • @rolandmay3117
    @rolandmay3117 10 месяцев назад

    Nice delivery...Subscribed , looking forward to more.. London UK

  • @saitougin7210
    @saitougin7210 11 месяцев назад

    This is just awesome. To think that one can roll up a foil and then it looks like a small flash light just because it reflects light so well. Mindblow. What a time to be alive.

  • @luciengrondin5802
    @luciengrondin5802 11 месяцев назад +3

    Long time ago I've heard or read that the main difficulty in building large telescope is the weight of the mirror, which would inevitably deform under its own weight beyond a certain size. But if a mirror can consist in a simple polymer film, weight cannot be the issue, can it? Unless it's the supporting material that is the problem?

    • @igrim4777
      @igrim4777 10 месяцев назад

      Glass can be ground at large sizes to exacting precision. The Hubble Space Telescope was 2.2 microns out of alignment at the edge and that crippled it. Try getting a precisely *curved* thin film polymer to maintain its exact curve and not be quasi randomly 2.2 microns out of alignment *everywhere* .

  • @westonding8953
    @westonding8953 11 месяцев назад +74

    I can imagine so many possible magician’s applications of this item if it’s scalable! Beyond the mirror uses, this can possibly be a form of “white art” in contrast with the commonly used black art.

    • @Dude-Smellmyhelmet
      @Dude-Smellmyhelmet 7 месяцев назад +3

      Regular horticultural mylar has a reflectivity of around 98%. And it's cheap and can be big. But seeing what magicians already do with mirrors, I think they have something better

  • @marcfruchtman9473
    @marcfruchtman9473 11 месяцев назад

    This is a really great subject! Material science is amazing!

  • @1992Cleanhouse
    @1992Cleanhouse 10 месяцев назад

    What an amazing video! explained in a concise video.

  • @YoungGandalf2325
    @YoungGandalf2325 11 месяцев назад +11

    It reflects over 99.5% of visible light! So close to being able to see how truly bad I look in the mirror.

  • @mrcaptain9333
    @mrcaptain9333 11 месяцев назад +22

    Can you make a flashlight with it, be interesting to see how much the lumens increase

    • @Ben_19M
      @Ben_19M 11 месяцев назад +2

      no

    • @jooei2810
      @jooei2810 11 месяцев назад +1

      @@Ben_19MWhy not, the material is good on reflection.

    • @Ben_19M
      @Ben_19M 11 месяцев назад

      @@jooei2810 i dont know

    • @jooei2810
      @jooei2810 11 месяцев назад +3

      @@Ben_19M So that is double no, no on making a flashlight and no on that you don’t know if it actually would work.
      Are you Dr. No by any chance?

    • @Ben_19M
      @Ben_19M 11 месяцев назад +1

      @@jooei2810 i dont like flashlights

  • @KerbalFacile
    @KerbalFacile 11 месяцев назад +2

    Incidentally, pinching the tubed mirror to turn it into a mini "flashlight" is an awesome demonstration of how cats' eyes get to see so well in the dark.

  • @Masterpeace0_0
    @Masterpeace0_0 11 месяцев назад

    One small things that just have simple purpose but when explained it has really amazing physics, this thing really makes me amazed

  • @TLR_
    @TLR_ 11 месяцев назад +5

    Great video! Keep it up!

  • @wilberdp
    @wilberdp 11 месяцев назад +7

    Seems like this could be cool for some concentrated solar, even small scale.

    • @AutoNomades
      @AutoNomades 11 месяцев назад

      Yes ! But let's see the price, and the weather resistance of the polymer.....

  • @msk.y
    @msk.y 11 месяцев назад

    great explanation!!

  • @qpwodkgh2010
    @qpwodkgh2010 10 месяцев назад

    That was really interesting. Thank you.

  • @JaykPuten
    @JaykPuten 11 месяцев назад +4

    Ohh I'm sure a lot of people are going to start using this in gardens and greenhouses and stuff
    Fresh picked strawberries in winter sounds like a fun thing to try with something to keep light reflecting around till the plants absorb it

    • @travispoulin252
      @travispoulin252 11 месяцев назад

      Plants rely on more than just light to grow...

    • @JaykPuten
      @JaykPuten 11 месяцев назад

      @@travispoulin252 I'm fully aware, I have an indoor and outdoor garden, compost, and fertilizer
      Just in some places growing plants inside or starting them in the winter indoors it's the lighting that's usually *my* biggest problem
      As it's a hobby and I can't afford industrial lights, and some get too hot in a small space, and air circulation... It's hard
      I was not trying to say light is all they need
      Just that's usually the biggest problem starting them indoors in winter/early spring
      Or we'll at least for me...
      And strawberries take 2 years before producing fruit so you'd have to put alot of effort into keeping them fruiting into winter instead of just going into their winter chill phase(I'm not a biologist so I forget the terminology)

  • @ravenragnar
    @ravenragnar 10 месяцев назад +3

    Dude I know your never going to read this but BETTER HELP is GARBAGE. Serious HOT GARBAGE. You should really re-look advertising with them.

  • @Respectable_Username
    @Respectable_Username 8 месяцев назад

    Oh man I wanna play with this stuff so much now! Wish it was available to just buy as a regular consumer. I'm imagining using it to help bounce light from the windows to the back of my apartment!

  • @Mandrag0ras
    @Mandrag0ras 10 месяцев назад +1

    This would be very useful as a reflector in omni directional or directional light fixtures.

  • @ConradSzymczak
    @ConradSzymczak 11 месяцев назад

    Great example of future materials science!

  • @notmyworld44
    @notmyworld44 11 месяцев назад

    Action Lab is always very interesting. Good stuff.

  • @captainobvious9188
    @captainobvious9188 10 месяцев назад

    I started watching this video and wondered if that film was the same as the film I’ve pealed off old LCDs right when you answered that. Love it when stuff like that happens.

  • @Metal_Master_YT
    @Metal_Master_YT 10 месяцев назад

    Ok, now I need this stuff.

  • @driesketels805
    @driesketels805 11 месяцев назад

    So interesting. Thank you!

  • @millthor
    @millthor 10 месяцев назад

    That’s definitely the coolest thing I’ve seen… since your last video! 😉

  • @deciBit
    @deciBit 7 месяцев назад

    Very informative. Thanks.

  • @shopshop144
    @shopshop144 11 месяцев назад +1

    IMO, one of your more interesting videos. How long has this material been around? I wish I understood more of the various sciences behind this.

  • @tsman2709
    @tsman2709 9 месяцев назад +1

    In my telescope setup, the diagonal is made with a dielectric mirror. The difference is noticeable against a regular diagonal.

  • @i_never_asked_for_an_alias
    @i_never_asked_for_an_alias 11 месяцев назад

    Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this.

  • @LordDustinDeWynd
    @LordDustinDeWynd 11 месяцев назад

    AMAZING! Thank you!

  • @basspig
    @basspig 6 месяцев назад

    That would make good material for a spotlight reflector.

  • @HerbertVickers
    @HerbertVickers 11 месяцев назад +1

    Great and informative video! My thoughts: After seeing your roll up, closed end, reflective flashlight, I envision panels of such rolls made for hung ceilings, to reduce the cost of lighting retail or commercial spaces.

    • @areadenial2343
      @areadenial2343 10 месяцев назад

      It's not actually acting like a flashlight. Rather, the opening is behaving like a white-colored surface. All the light that enters the hole leaves it, scattered in random directions due to imperfections in the mirror's surface. It would be more cost-effective to just use white paint.

  • @haroldwhitney6130
    @haroldwhitney6130 7 месяцев назад

    Enlightening. Good Stuff.

  • @MatthewRulla
    @MatthewRulla 11 месяцев назад +2

    I would like to use this material on my next telescope build. I've never been happy with the cost or quality of sputter coating on my custom first order mirrors.

  • @mrautistic2580
    @mrautistic2580 11 месяцев назад

    Your best video yet!!!

  • @nairocamilo
    @nairocamilo 11 месяцев назад

    Fascinating! I liked the explanation of the layering, your videos are very easy to understand
    On another note, serendipity is the mother of so many scientific discoveries 😅

  • @mountiedm
    @mountiedm 11 месяцев назад +1

    That's crazy cool. Something I didn't know at all even as I'm in the midst of building a solar concentrator

  • @Powersfilms
    @Powersfilms 11 месяцев назад +1

    You should do a video explaining Dichroic Mirrors!
    Oh wow, in the anatomy of the reflected film, it really feels a lot like a Dichroic Mirror.

  • @maskedmarvyl4774
    @maskedmarvyl4774 10 месяцев назад +1

    I wouldn't say that it's made of a "bunch of different layers that aren't reflective at all". I would say rather that it's made of many different transparent layers that are partially reflective to a certain degree, such that when you add all the layers together, you achieve this effect.

  • @fluffyflunk
    @fluffyflunk 6 месяцев назад

    Very interesting! Thanks.

  • @jozefnovak7750
    @jozefnovak7750 6 месяцев назад

    Super! Thank you very much!

  • @0tedaCecapS
    @0tedaCecapS 10 месяцев назад

    Fascinating, cheers

  • @TruthLives4444
    @TruthLives4444 3 месяца назад

    You're friggin AWESOME bro