mirror mirror on my wall

would you work just as good as all the other reflecters after all ??


a mirror is an flat surfice so i wouldnt see why not


Reflective

flat

easy to hook up

i have many

Mirrors absorb more light than it reflects.

Since the reflective part of the mirror is on the back of the glass light has 2 pass through it twice in order to get to your plants. Much of the usable light is lost passing through the glass.

dankie said:

Since the reflective part of the mirror is on the back of the glass light has 2 pass through it twice in order to get to your plants. Much of the usable light is lost passing through the glass.

Click to expand...

would it be better then nothing or would it still be point less

HotNSexyMILF said:

Mirrors absorb more light than it reflects.

Click to expand...

On a very small (think particle) level - mirrors do absorb light but it is misleading to say mirrors absorb light. I think this got started with the Cannabis bible or something and this is inaccurate.

The problem with mirrors is they are "too perfect" light reflectors. They suffer from something called specular reflectivity or "hot spots". Mirrors focus light and can burn holes in your plants (and anything else the light focuses on).

Bottom line - don't use mirrors (I guess you could glaze them with vaseline or something but i wouldn't risk it).

If you want to experiment for yourself regarding mirrors and lights you can try this - turn off all your lights at night and see if your mirrors seem to glow with ambient light. If mirrors absorbed light there wouldn't be any ambient glow but this simple test will show they do seem to glow.

anyway - sorry if this sounds nit-picky but i'd like to see the editors of the cannabis bible (or wherever this myth started) update their information.

well it wouldnt be right if they absorb light and create hot spots cuase it has to be absobed by the glass then it ............ it dosnt make cents

and its not like an magnifing glass

and tinted glass mirrors ??

could you realy get hotspots at veggie stage ???

Mirrors do not absorb light (at the physical level we are discussing). Yes photons are lost after light hits any object (light bends even from the force of gravity) but that doesn't really effect how they work in a grow room. Mirrors do act very much like magnifying glasses - shine a bright light (like a surefire flashlight or an HID light) into a mirror and move the light (or mirror) around until the light beam hits you in the eyes. That is a hot spot. After the spots in your eyes go away - go read my earlier post. They differ from magnifiers in that magnifiers increase and focus the light/heat whereas mirrors just focus the light/heat (no increase).

the hot spots you get from mirrors are completely unrelated to what stage the plants are in - you can see a mirror "hot spot" anytime you want - try the "shine a light in a mirror" trick. But if you are asking can mirrors burn plants in veg stage then the answer is yes.

But if you don't believe me then go ahead and use them.

You are correct the light is not absorbed so much as the light is refracted in different wavelengths.

You can see an example of this here.

You can change the mediums the light waves pass through in this simulation.

In effect, the money you spent on a bulb with a certain spectrum of light waves is useless because you have changed the lightwave multiple times passing it through the air to the glass to the reflective surface & back through the glass and into the air.

The law of physics that controls reflection and refraction is Snell's Law

cool i wish i was smert

Thankie Dankie! didn't know the law of refraction was AKA Snell's Law - cool!

Your welcome rep it up baby!