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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?

(post is archived)

Heat up? What?

The light would reflect a considerable way before it started to diffuse depending how much direct light the first mirror reflected and how clear and big each mirror was.

With the right shape mirrors you could light up as much of the cave as you want. It's sunlight. It has the legs!

[–] 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.

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

[–] 1 pt

The shame of editing got to him