Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

>and must, due to the laws of thermodynamics, not be 100% transparent.

It's perhaps worth noting, however, that it wouldn't be unusual for a window to have only ~60% transmittance in visible spectrum.



A fresh piece of uncoated perfectly clean glass is ~ 90% transparent.


But windows are often multiple panes and coated.


I think people think that light goes through glass like a laser beam nothing in its way. Just flying right through. But it's actually like a pool ball hitting another pool ago and so on. The original photon of light is not what you see on the other side of the glass.


> The original photon of light is not what you see on the other side of the glass.

Oh no! How do I check if I'm getting counterfeit sunlight?


I did mostly think that. So what's the thing in the glass that gets hit like the "another pool ball"?


The oscillations of charge in the glass.


I found this 3blue1brown video to be a fascinating explaination on how light gets transmitted by transparent material:

https://youtu.be/KTzGBJPuJwM?si=hw_SIaklkqfVSGnc




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: