Greetings Great Dialers! Last weekend, I tried the following experiment with baffling results:
I took a flat shaving mirror, about 6 inches in diameter, and placed a 1/4 inch square of black electrical tape in its center. I then used the mirror to reflect sunlight onto the side of my white car which was shaded from the sun. In the middle of the patch of light was a dark image of the sun. This was a bit difficult to see due to the bright light all around the darker image. Next, I positioned the mirror so the shadow of a tree branch fell on the mirror. As expected, the shadow also appeared in the bright patch of light on the side of my car. Now here is the baffling part: When the shadow of the branch passed over the piece of black tape, a light image of the tree branch appeared on the dark image of the sun! By moving the mirror such that the shadow of the tree branch passed back and forth across the piece of tape, I observed that the reflected shadow of the tree branch and the light image of the tree branch moved in opposite directions. I am baffled as to how this effect works. The effect is very difficult to see and careful observation is required. I suspect that the images would be clearer if I had access to a fairly large first surface mirror. The images were very fuzzy, and I suspect that this was due in part to my using a second surface mirror and in part because the negative nature of the images confused my eye. Hopefully, some of you can reproduce the effect and make comments on your observations. Thanks Charles
