mirrors absorb light? i thought someone would say theyre too expensive to get to line a whole closet, but to say they absorb...i thought that was the most reflective surface on earth.
Optics have 3 main properties.
Transmission (what gets past it)
Reflection the light that bounces back
And absorption. The light that gets 'stuck' in the optic.
Now, there is also spectrums. I deal with lasers for a living. A YAG laser will cut copper just fine, yet a CO2 laser doesn't like it too well (the CO2 laser optics/mirror are made of copper. It reflects that spectrum (10,600nm ) the best.
Now with a mirror. its a picee of glass with a typical 1.56 refractive index. Then on the backside is a layer of, usually silver.
The glass itself has a natural reflection (in visible range, 350-750nm) of about 4-8%. That is off the front surface. Then the rest of the light passes to the back silver coating then back out the front. Keep in mind that the 2 internal surfaces of the glass will also reflect the light within the glass layer. There is also the refractive index difference between the glass and silver layer.
And the refraction keeps it from being reflected straight back (or compliment angle.)
You can actually take a piece of glass (or mirror) and coat it and have it reflect (or preform) better.
(OK, *you* can't coat it, unless you got a vacuum deposition chamber in the garage. But it can be done.)
So no, silver isn't the most reflective stuff on earth. But also maybe. All depends on the spectrum and the other layers. The copper mirrors I deal with (with a Zinc Selinide coating) are dang reflective in visible. Seem to enhance the light when I bounce the ceiling lights off them. But they are designed for the far IR range.
With that I can't see a mirror being bad. I went with flat white paint. I feel the white will defuse the light a bit (of course with absorbing) What i plan on doing *someday* is to make a baffled deal. Little louvers reflecting the light back and up at a small angle. Probably out of oaktag or the like.
cheers