Saturday, November 22, 2025

Somewhat Surprising

It was early afternoon on a clear Wednesday. I was strolling down a neighborhood sidewalk in the sunshine, relaxed and with not a care in the world, when suddenly something caught my eye -- a bright flash of light at the edge of vision, that quickly streaked across a road sign and disappeared.  I looked about, looking for the source, but didn't see any likely candidate.  So I was about to resume my walk when I saw it again, very clearly this time because I was looking right at the sign; and not only that, it seemed timed to match my movement.  Intrigued, I cautiously moved forward again -- and yes, there it was.  This time it stayed on the road sign long enough that I could tell it was mimicking my movement.






That's when I realized it was sunlight reflecting off the "steampunk" goggles on my hat!  I turned my head slowly back and forth, and sure enough, it followed my movements.  I was a little amazed that the spot of reflected light was so concentrated and clear-edged, with practically no dispersal to speak of, just like when I used to play with a hand mirror and sunlight as a child.  To look at the goggles casually, you would not think the lenses would be this effective as reflectors.


As for why there was only one reflection instead of two, the only possible explanation I can come up with is that perhaps it was due to the slight divergence of angle between the two lenses magnified by the distance.  You know, like how a Venus probe going just a few degrees off orbit early on could necessitate a course correction of tens of thousands of miles later on.

No comments:

Post a Comment