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If a cave had 1 mirror at the mouth receiving sun, and a relay of mirrors going down into the cave, how far could the light travel?

Would the mirrors need to heat up to push light further?

If a cave had 1 mirror at the mouth receiving sun, and a relay of mirrors going down into the cave, how far could the light travel? Would the mirrors need to heat up to push light further?

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[–] • 1 pt

Wouldn't the light heat the mirrors some? Wouldn't that heat steal some of the light's energy?

Or are you saying the light could bounce 5 billion times with no degradation?

[–] • 2 pts

Most of the heat would be from the infrared spectrum if you're using standard mirrors, glass is opaque to IR.

[–] • 1 pt

Did not know that, thank you

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt (edited )

Most of the light hitting a mirror is reflected. They warm up a little bit over the day but if you have a well made surface then yeah, whats stopping light from travelling 5 billion miles to earth and then a few miles around a cave? Diffusion/degradtion is your problem. The first mirror will beam a nice amount of light that ideally you'd used to light up an entire cave from the roof.

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt

Oh man, did this hit such a nerve that this guy deleted his account?

[–] • 1 pt

The shame of editing got to him