At school a teacher told us that reflection is caused if the surface is 
electroconductive (at the frequency of the light-wave). In that case it 
will "short-circuit" the "electric part" of the wave (light is an 
electromagnetic-wave) - because the electric and the magnetic vectors 
are perpendicular the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of 
incidence.

I have got no idea if this is true - could be complete nonsense...

-sascha


Christoph Hormann wrote:
> 
> Andrew Coppin wrote:
> 
>>Here's a simple enough question...
>>
>>Is it possible for a transparent substance to be non-reflective? Or are all
>>transparent substances inherantly reflective to a certain degree?
> 
> 
> Reflection is an inherent effect on all interfaces between materials of
> different optical density (i.e. ior, speed of light in the material)
> 
> The amount of reflection depending on the incident angle and the materials
> can be calculated with the fresnel equations.  This works for both a
> transit from less dense to more dense medium as well as the other way
> round.  More information can be found in the links from:
> 
> http://www-public.tu-bs.de:8080/~y0013390/pov/water/water_app1.html#reflect
> 
> Christoph
>

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