Light on a mirror question...

[hitmankratos]

Hi,

 

I was wondering on the way light reacts with mirrors when the mirror is thick... Is it the image on the left or the image on the right?

 

[Klaynos]

Normally it'll be on a metal film behind the glass... The mirrors used in labs tend to just be metal film deposited on some substrate, normally glass so that the light doesn't have to pass through anything to be reflected. For metals the reflections happen at or very close to the surface (within a skin depth). With other materials where you see reflections, such as looking through windows you will often get a reflection from both the front and the back interface depending on coatings on the glass etc...