If you have two mirrors facing each other and you introduce a light source into the reflections and you take the light source away, would it immediately go away for all reflections in the "tunnel" of reflections?
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1It wouldn't go away right away but it would go away faster than any human could observe. Mirrors don't reflect 100% of light anyway, so a single photon might survive a handful of reflections back and forth before being absorbed and turned into heat. Now if you set up an experiment in empty space with mirrors several thousands of miles apart you might be able to catch a delayed reflection after turning off the light source. – userLTK Jan 14 '16 at 21:36
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I was thinking of doing this with something like http://www.extremetech.com/computing/162322-mit-creates-the-first-perfect-mirror in theory. – Java-N00b Jan 14 '16 at 21:42
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@userLTK "single photon might survive a handful of reflections back and forth before being absorbed" -- What about high-Q cavities? – Norbert Schuch Jan 14 '16 at 22:24
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@NorbertSchuch You got me there. I don't know the answer to that one. – userLTK Jan 14 '16 at 22:39
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Possible duplicate of Mirror reflection – Muze Jan 15 '16 at 09:01
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Possible duplicate of Why do light disappears the moment we switch off the source (inside the wooden box)? – Kyle Kanos Jan 15 '16 at 11:18