A ray of light impinges on a mirror at 35 degrees a second mirror is fastened at 90 degrees to the first. After striking both mirrors at what angle relative to the incoming ray is the outgoing ray?

Answer:
Zero degrees. The ray will leave the two mirrors along a path parallel to the one it came in on. This is the principle of the corner reflector, which is often used as a radar target. Note that the corner reflector uses three reflecting surfaces (that are set up at 90o from each other) instead of the two like are being used here.

Wikipedia has a really great drawing that illustrates this two-dimentional problem very nicely. A second link is provided to the article on the corner reflector and the 3-D aspects.

First answer by ID1178921919. Last edit by Quirkyquantummechanic. Contributor trust: 3688 [recommend contributor recommended]. Question popularity: 4 [recommend question].