What is Reflection of light?

Reflection of light is when light bounces off a surface and goes somewhere else.

Imagine you're playing with a ball in a hallway. When you throw the ball at a wall, it bounces back to you, that's like how light works. Instead of a ball, we have light, and instead of a wall, we can have anything smooth, like a mirror or even water.

When light hits a surface, some of it goes through the surface (like when light passes through glass), but some of it just bounces back, that’s reflection. The smoother the surface, the better the bounce! A mirror is super smooth, so it reflects almost all the light.

If you look at a still lake on a sunny day, you can see your face in the water, that's reflection too! Just like how you see yourself in a mirror, you're seeing yourself in the water because the light from your face bounced off the surface of the lake and went into your eyes.

So next time you look at a shiny object or see your reflection somewhere unexpected, remember: it’s just light having fun and bouncing around!