Chinese Magic Mirrors are really clever
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- Опубліковано 18 сер 2022
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Sometimes called transparent metal mirrors, these curiosities from China baffles western scientists for 100 years. The way they works is really surprising.
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Correction: 2:29 Ugh, those angles are off. The sides of the divot should be at 22.5 degrees not 45 degrees for those rays to be correct. But you get what I'm trying to show right?!
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I imagine in manufacturing, the reflected image is simply masked on the mirror surface then etched with a mild acid which would slightly change the relief on the mirrored side. Once etching is completed it's simply cleaned and polished. This would account for the misalignment and non-matching images. This is also similar to the process which constructs the silicon wafers you mentioned for transistors.
It's easy to intuit that imperceptible variations in the surface would cause a pattern in the reflection, but the convex shape making it distance-independent, that's the real genius. Amazing what they could invent thousands of years ago.
In your first example of an indent in the mirror (
Grand Illusions! That's a shout out on this channel I never expected to see. Those toys and trinkets that Tim shares from his collection are often a wonder to see.
Great to see Grand Illusions here! I'm only just now realizing there's probably a few videos you could make using Tim's magic toys. :D
Okay that ending hologram looking thing is so freaking cool. I'd love to see you go into a deep dive into hologram type things.
One method I've seen at least, involves engraving the image in reverse on the back of the mirror, placing the back of the mirror on a hard, flat surface, and then polishing the front of the mirror to its final mirror finish. The pressure of polishing the front causes the metal above the relieved areas to distort slightly. Upon then bringing the back to mirror polish as well, the image becomes imperceptible to the human eye by direct observation from either side, the image only revealed in light reflected onto a surface.
Actually there is one more thing missing in this explanation: The part about the optical illusion.
The optical physics of this is fascinating, but I'm more excited by the realization that this is what the Mirror of Twilight was supposed to be in TLoZ: Twilight Princess.
The ones you can by now are not made in the same way as they were traditionally. The "original" way was decently simple as bronze, while being a metal, is soft enough that surface-differences on one side can easily pass through to the other side when stress is applied - aka when polishing. That can intentionally be enhanced further but just casting it with a relief and then polishing will already give you this result.
Aside from acid etching, you can also just stamp the surface then polish it back; if you light it while polishing in stages you can do it by hand without killing the image (I've seen this done with backed foil). Etching would probably be more consistent for mass production though.
At first, I thought they probably transferred the image on the back by making the mirror, and then placing it on some stiff rubber and giving it a really hard whack, slightly bulging out the areas that were raised on the back. After you pointed out that the images' don't always line up, though, I bet the etching trick is probably correct.
4:43
the lion at the end is the coolest thing shown in the video lol, i hope he makes a sequel for it :)
Regarding semiconductor manufacturing, there is even more crucial role for this technique in some processes - mask alignment. For each manufacturing step a different pattern needs to be transfered onto the wafer surface so the first mask usually contains alignment targets for all the subsequent masks.
I was just thinking "this looks like Tim's collection" and then you mention it literally is his😂 I love his channel so much, so it’s a joy hearing his name!
Took me a while til I realized the light wasn’t passing through the disc. You’re pointing the light from the wall to the shiny side. Then the light bounces back towards the wall
I’ve never heard of anything like this but it’s so cool! I love that I never know what I’m going to learn about when you post 😅
I remember long ago watching a documentary that included how traditional magic mirrors were made in Japan after the technology was imported from China. The workshop would cast the mirror, with the image on the back. To bring out the image on the mirror side, months would be spent scraping the mirror surface. The maker would feel the surface, scraping off finer amounts, eventually polishing and apply a nickel finish. The presenter did mention that false backs could be added to conceal the original image, they didn't say how.
Earned a sub, very nice video with outstanding explanation of the thematic, pls don't stop doing stuff like this, we need more people like you in this world! :)