Hi, I am working on a invention type thing involving mirrors and beams of light that i thought up while watching a video but I am not a mathematical genious and I don't know the angles at which to place the mirrors.
I was wondering if any of you know of a site that has some sort of generator where you can fiddle with mirrows to make the light bounce of one mirror and go in a certain direction so that I can have it basically done on the computer in simulation then create it in real life.
Thanks
But the math is elementary if the mirrors are flat, uniform, and polarization insensitive. If the are singly or double curved, the mathematics can be more complicated.
The simplistic approach (flat mirrors), the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence.
Ya I but I don't need just simple measurement's I am using flat mirrors but the problem is I am creating a loop of light so the angles need to as precise as I can get them or the light beem is going to eventually make its way off the mirrors.
I don't really want to put the diagram on here because I would like to patent it if it works. So I am not going to go into detail what is actually happening in this experiment of mine but here is a 3d diagram well a 3d perspective drawing.
Ok, now before you say that won't because of whatever reason I know the image is bad the angles arn't right and I know of a few other problems in that so don't try pointing the mout all I need help with is positioning the mirrors thats why I am trying to find a environment on the internet that I can play around with to get the angles right.[/img] ok, this isn't what you asked for 
but i thought it was fun to mention anyway, that you could 'trap' a beam of light with just two mirrors, using an idea from a classic experiment that was once used to measure the speed of light. Basicly you have two mirrors facing each other but a long long way apart, then you shine your light from one to the other, and before the light beam has time to go all the way to the distant mirror and back, you move your laser out of the way, and the light beam is trapped
The original experiment used a 'half' mirror and rotating blades so the distance could be made shorter, see it on wikipedia here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fizeau-Foucault_apparatus
Ya that was what my original plan was but since there is nothing on earth today that we know of that we can harness to make an object go the speed of light so i decided to complicate it so that I can relistictly have that happen. for a little while atleast.
Edit: Nvm I see that that spinning disk is a mirror. That gives me a new idea maybe....
Sorry to burst your bubble, but in order for the setup in your diagram to work, wouldn't both the left and right-most mirrors have to be simultaneously at two angles? (Or at least readjusted before the light comes back to them, which, unless there is a lot of distance involved, won't give you much time for the adjustments.)
Even if it did get into an absolutely perfect loop, the laser would be in the way, so you'd have to move the laser away very quickly (again, unless there were huge distances involved).
Perhaps a better way would be to use a triangular prism which would combine the beam coming from the laser with an earlier beam that has been reflected several times.
Even if this succeeds, though the laser beam will not be trapped forever. The air in between the mirrors will reflect it randomly little by little until there is nothing left. Even in a vacuum, the mirrors themselves would scatter a small amount unless they were absolutely flawless. (Also, you'd have to find or make a perfect vacuum, which could be a problem.)
If it could be made to work (such as with the prism method) I do see the advantage of it, despite problems with the air scattering some of the beam: It could be used to charge up a single, large blast of light made of the continual building up of the original beam being added to every time it goes around. The amount of power such a device could charge up that way would depend on how efficient it was at not dissipating the beam (very high-quality mirrors in a vacuum would be the most efficient way).
It would allow a weak laser to act as a very very strong one for very brief periods separated by long charging intervals.
Another problem you'd have to overcome for the situation I just mentioned would be heat. Of the parts of the beam that are dissipated, much of those will end up as heat energy. Depending on how you want to use such a device, and what you build it out of, that heat could be a problem, limiting the duration of the charge and limiting how often you charge it up.
Although it comes from a game, this image demonstrates what I was talking about with using a prism to combine beams: Suppose one of these beams is coming straight from the laser and the other is the one that has been reflected around in a circle:
The beams from the top and the right combine into one at the bottom left, which could be reflected back to the right.
Sorry; looks as if I've gotten carried away and made a huge post. Ah ha, Well I thank you for the interest in this topic I knew those problems well most of them when I posted last saying I know the problems or I will eventually figure out them so don't tell me them but I would like to thank you for taking the time and interest in this.
I am not so much looking to create it in real life as much as to create it on paper.
| cr3ativ3 wrote: |
I am not so much looking to create it in real life as much as to create it on paper. |
Aw, what's the fun (or profit) in that? You could build a basic one with less than $100.Oh ok, maybe I wasn't paying attention well enough but I thought you said it was practically impossible well not in such small words. So your saying using a prism I could get to work well for a few seconds if not minutes?
A few second/minutes? No. An hour or two would probably do it (if you have a very steady hand), though. The angles would have to be very precise. Finding out what angle it needs to be would be easy, it's getting a real mirror set so precisely that would be difficult.
I would suggest having it all set up on a flat, mobile surface, with little mirrors you can move around like pieces on a game board. Having each mirror have an opaque side with a target on it in the exact middle would make it easier to aim each one.
I will try what you said if I can get a hold of a prism thanks.
