Dilettante Fascination

I’m sure I’ve asked the question “What color is a mirror” more than once to my FB friends. I would almost always get the answer “silver”. What people don’t seem to get when I ask this question is that the perception of “color” refers to the color the object doesn’t absorb. On paper, since it reflects all colors, a perfect mirror is more akin to white. However, since mirrors “reflect” light differently from how a white sheet of paper “reflects” all colors of light (which is why it’s perceived as white), a mirror can be thought of as a “smart white”…ideally.

What I didn’t know before I watched this video is that in reality, mirrors absorb a small amount of light except for green, hence mirrors are actually slightly green. This explains why the “hall of mirror” optical illusion tends to get slightly darker and green. I honestly never noticed that bit before.

Other things I found interesting about this video:

• The sky is blue because the gas molecules in the atmosphere absorb shorter wavelength light (ie. blue) and radiates in numerous directions. 
• On a similar note, sunrise/sunsets are red because light has to travel further; more colors are absorbed, only leaving the longest wavelengths (ie. red)
• Eye color is similar to these processes. Just a different form of scattering (Tyndall/Rayleigh Scattering)

TL;DR—Mirrors are slightly green.