Why do mirrors look "gray"?

Question

Or any other silver surface? Perfect silver "colour" just seems to be "reflecting gray", so something that absorbs all wavelengths by the same fraction and reflects everything else specularly. When I scratch it, it gets gray.

So a mirrors are gray and specular reflectors and therefore the colour we commonly call silver is, also, simply gray and specular. Is that correct or am I heading in the wrong direction here?

Possible duplicates: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/72368/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/200932/2451 and links therein. — Qmechanic, Aug 06 '17 at 19:03
Possibly too complex answer here https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/72368/ — Martin Beckett, Aug 06 '17 at 19:03

score -2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 09 '18 at 23:08

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Standard mirrors used to be made of silver and silver yes has a grey metallic color to it. Platinum can also be used to make a brighter less grey mirror. A Dielectric mirror reflects best almost all viable light and should have no tint of grey.

answered Feb 09 '18 at 23:08

Muze

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This says nothing about why mirrors and/or silver is gray. – Dmitry Brant Feb 10 '18 at 00:10

Why do mirrors look "gray"?

1 Answers1