Bouncing light around a corner.

Can a mirror send a beam around a corner?

Setting up the mechanism…

Target: Miss
Mirror orientation: 20°
Reflected direction: 40°

Incidence to normal: 70°

Rotate the mirror and switch on the drawn laser.

Can a mirror send a beam around a corner?

A mirror reflects a ray so its angle of reflection equals its angle of incidence, both measured from the normal. Rotating a mirror by one degree rotates the reflected ray by two degrees.

Incidence angle = reflection angle

What this model simplifies

2D ideal reflection. Angles are measured from the normal; beam direction follows the actual mirror orientation. Fixed source and target, not a general optical bench. Laser is a drawn ray.

Read the source · openstax.org ↗

Put it to work.

Hit the target using equal incidence and reflection angles.

Make it work.

Send the reflected beam into the target.

Run

Bouncing light around a corner.

Can a mirror send a beam around a corner?

Loading the experiment…

Figuvo

Understand by doing.

Understanding is something you do.

Figuvo is a place to look inside everyday things, build a connection, and discover the idea behind them.

177 interactive experiments. Each has a working model and a challenge to test what you found.

The original inspiration

Levers & fulcrums The surprising gyroscope The field cannon Inside the human body

Original demonstrations by The Bugged Dev. The teaching models and interactions here are new implementations.

Community builds

New teaching models inspired by public builds shared around Anatomy.

Anatomy · the original announcement How a rocket pushes through space · Gustavo Inside a tactile key switch · @retaqib Pressure through the coffee bed · Gustavo The overbalance wheel · Shawn A seconds pendulum clock · @Baconbrix Three feet on the ground · Soju Inside a layered particle detector · Yash A double-deck pressure cabin · Charlie Leave the spent booster behind · @quantapar Principal, interest and escrow · Sean Gear a Martian year · @samani_Two balls in, two balls out · @samani_Two slits, one probability pattern · @samani_Join through a clear plastic cover · Josh Brown Lay pipe without a sharp bend · @Phi10w Eight cylinders and a blower · @love4hxns Four columns under a Joglo roof · Nur Asyrof An office for dependent tasks · Yaroslav Yablonski One image, six editable layers · Meng To The Redis caching machine · @uviii_03 Inside the Sony CMD-J5 · Ann Afterburner thrust stand · Joshua Guo Open-back headphones · Surajan Shrestha Two-thread lockstitch machine · @slashui Signal factory · Dhruval Golakiya

Art & animation

Bouncing light around a corner.

Can a mirror send a beam around a corner?

Setting up the mechanism…

Target: Miss
Mirror orientation: 20°
Reflected direction: 40°

Incidence to normal: 70°

Rotate the mirror and switch on the drawn laser.

Can a mirror send a beam around a corner?

A mirror reflects a ray so its angle of reflection equals its angle of incidence, both measured from the normal. Rotating a mirror by one degree rotates the reflected ray by two degrees.

Incidence angle = reflection angle

What this model simplifies

2D ideal reflection. Angles are measured from the normal; beam direction follows the actual mirror orientation. Fixed source and target, not a general optical bench. Laser is a drawn ray.

Read the source · openstax.org ↗

Put it to work.

Hit the target using equal incidence and reflection angles.

Make it work.

Send the reflected beam into the target.