NWT #4: I Want My M(irror)TV

[chiscotheque]

Question: When we stare into a mirror, where does the reflection go?

Card: The Wheel of Fortune 10 MTV

Answer: The reflection goes into inner space, the TV of the soul, where - if one isn't careful - it can max-out one's headroom.

[Joan Marie]

Question: When we stare into a mirror, where does the reflection go?

This reminds me of a question I have always had: When you turn out the lights, where does the light go?

[chiscotheque]

This reminds me of a question I have always had: When you turn out the lights, where does the light go?

This reminds me of a question I've had for a while now (although it may be the same question): when you turn on the light, where does the light go? That is, if matter cannot be created or destroyed, and let's say the room had no windows, why doesn't the light just bounce around in there forever? So I guess it is the same question - if you turn the light off, why doesn't the light from before still circulate? - if you close a window, the room doesn't suddenly have no air.

The recent string of questions come from Dodalisque's suggestions, which are on the oblique and tenuous side.

[Ciderwell]

... if matter cannot be created or destroyed, and let's say the room had no windows, why doesn't the light just bounce around in there forever?

Why is a soap bubble round? If light were spherical then the dark would be equivalent to surface tension. So when you flip the switch the light goes "pop". As light has no mass and therefore no weight then maybe the dark also has no mass and no weight, and not just the 'absence' of light.

It is interesting that the intersection of two circles has the same shape as the human eye, which also happens to be a place where light and dark meet.

[chiscotheque]

If light has no mass, maybe we should send some missionaries to proselytize the heathen light?
relativity mass aside, does light really have no mass, or do we just not have scales sensitive enough to weigh it? i know they call photons particles, but maybe they're just a piece of a wave that's been cut off from its source?
not sure about your soap bubble metaphor, Ciderwell - maybe the dark is the soap bubble, and the light switched on bursts the darkness bubble? that, or it just gets crestfallen. still, the soap and water go somewhere, whereas the light literally disappears, like socks in the dryer.

[Ciderwell]

maybe we should send some missionaries to proselytize the heathen light?

Good idea. When my time comes I hope my dead relatives escort me to the light, not the dark ...

[dodalisque]

This reminds me of a question I have always had: When you turn out the lights, where does the light go?

Back where it came from?

However,
The First Law of Thermodynamics

The first law of thermodynamics, also known as Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another. For example, turning on a light would seem to produce energy; however, it is electrical energy that is converted.

The 3 Laws of Thermodynamics:

The first law, also known as Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy cannot be created or destroyed in an isolated system.
The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of any isolated system always increases.
The third law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a system approaches a constant value as the temperature approaches absolute zero.

System or Surroundings

In order to avoid confusion, scientists discuss thermodynamic values in reference to a system and its surroundings. Everything that is not a part of the system constitutes its surroundings. The system and surroundings are separated by a boundary. For example, if the system is one mole of a gas in a container, then the boundary is simply the inner wall of the container itself. Everything outside of the boundary is considered the surroundings, which would include the container itself.

The boundary must be clearly defined, so one can clearly say whether a given part of the world is in the system or in the surroundings. If matter is not able to pass across the boundary, then the system is said to be closed; otherwise, it is open. A closed system may still exchange energy with the surroundings unless the system is an isolated one, in which case neither matter nor energy can pass across the boundary.

[dodalisque]

This reminds me of a question I've had for a while now (although it may be the same question): when you turn on the light, where does the light go? That is, if matter cannot be created or destroyed, and let's say the room had no windows, why doesn't the light just bounce around in there forever? So I guess it is the same question - if you turn the light off, why doesn't the light from before still circulate? - if you close a window, the room doesn't suddenly have no air.

Apparently sound waves keep traveling forever. The universe must be getting progressively more cluttered. The question comes from the last line of a Thomas Hardy poem:

MOMENTS OF VISION

That mirror
Which makes of men a transparency,
Who holds that mirror
And bids us such a breast-bare spectacle see
Of you and me?

That mirror
Whose magic penetrates like a dart,
Who lifts that mirror
And throws our mind back on us, and our heart,
Until we start?

That mirror
Works well in these night hours of ache;
Why in that mirror
Are tincts we never see ourselves once take
When the world is awake?

That mirror
Can test each mortal when unaware;
Yea, that strange mirror
May catch his last thoughts, whole life foul or fair,
Glassing it – where?

[dodalisque]

maybe we should send some missionaries to proselytize the heathen light?

Good idea. When my time comes I hope my dead relatives escort me to the light, not the dark ...

Requiem. A Mass for mass.