Mirror mirror on the wall, how do you work, anyway?
For almost as long as people have been around, they've wanted to look at their reflections. Of course, you can just look in a pool of water, but that's not easy to carry around with you!
Some of the earliest mirrors were made of obsidian, a shiny, black, volcanic rock. The ancient Egyptians polished bronze to see themselves, and in ancient China people combined tin and copper and made the surface as smooth as possible. The best mirrors were ones that could be highly polished, but the metals used were often expensive, so only the rich could afford them.
The modern-day mirror is made entirely differently. The mirrors you have around your house are made of a thin, super-smooth layer of aluminum and a glass cover. The layer of metal does the job of reflecting, while the glass helps keep it protected. Some mirrors are made with different materials depending on what they will be used for.
While some surfaces may seem smooth, when you get up close they are actually textured. Don't believe it? Get up close to a wall or touch a wooden tabletop. The power of mirrors lies in how smooth they are. This special texture allows light to bounce off the surface instead of being absorbed, creating a reflection. Aluminum can be made very smooth, so it is a very good reflector.
So to answer the question, mirrors are kind of silver, at least these days. But the most important thing is to have a very smooth surface.
There are lots of superstitions about mirrors. One is that you should cover them when it rains. Another says that if you break a mirror you will have bad luck for seven years. What do you think?
Image source: "'Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?'" by epicture's is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
