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Introduction -we hope this page doesn't violate any state secrets, but anyone who has watched detective shows or has tried on mirrored sunglasses knows something about all this. And any renter who wants to check out a suspiciously placed bathroom mirror should learn how to put their wife at ease that the landlord is not videotaping them in the shower for a future internet posting. Its quite common to see mirrored windows separating shopping areas from the manager' office. And mirrored ceiling tiles often hide attic video cameras. U.S. Post offices even have soundproof passages in the ceiling called Look Out Galleries, that have little mirrored bay windows to prevent theft or diversion of the mails by employees. Feel free to shorten or correct spelling.
The reference to disneyland may be out of date, as it was 1971 when i noticed this. Transparent ghosts were well lit reflections of ghost manakins located below the viewer but reflected against a glass wall to appear as semi transparent apparitions flying in a room next to the viewer. All the more impressive because they appeared in three dimensions. A similar effect was had by reflections in framed mirrors as the cars rotated and climbed out of the ride, and appeared in the mirror to be riding in the car with you. WonderWheeler 07:41, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for the addition of Peppers's ghost. I was unaware of the term, was only observing the effect. There is also a discussion at mirror under "one-way mirror". Will try to add a link there to this page, and thereby Pepper's ghost. WonderWheeler 01:05, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
I once used a urinal at a restaurant (the type where it is along a wall) and instead of a metal wall, they had a two-way mirror, that you could see all the patrons of the restaurant though. I don't understand how this type of glass could be fooled so easily (i don't think it was especially dark in the bathroom) as anyone wearing sunglasses or something could see you! there must be other types of mirrors. does anyone know? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.156.66.110 (talk)
This page needs drastic revision. It is written like a how-to guide. It does not meet wikipedia's quality standards. Someone needs to completely rewrite it. --Rebent 17:20, 14 October 2007 (UTC)
Also, within the principles of operation section, there are only two citations. One is a blog and another has nothing to do with the science of how they operate. Petesims411 (talk) 06:59, 26 July 2021 (UTC)
As I understand it, a true passive one-way optical device is not possible—you can use a video camera and a screen, but you can't make optics that only let light through in one direction. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think this is related to reciprocity. If this is in fact the case, the article should make it clear that so-called one-way mirrors are really a combination of coated glass with particular lighting. In the usual case, you use a semi-silvered mirror, so say 10% of the light passes through and 90% is reflected. If you put that between a dark room and a light room, where the dark room is 5% as bright as the light room, then on the light side, you will see 0.9 * 1 L + 0.1 * 0.05 D = 0.9 L + 0.005 D where L and D are the images of the light and dark rooms respectively if they were lit the same. On the dark side, you would see 0.05 * 0.9 D + 0.1 * 1 L = 0.045 D + .1 L which, adjusting for exposure is the same as L + .45D. So effectively, that's one-way glass, even though it really behaves symmetrically. —Ben FrantzDale (talk) 21:25, 26 May 2008 (UTC)
Regardless of optical laws it's impossible by reductio ad absurdum: a theoretical one-way mirror could be used to allow a cold body to transfer net thermal radiation to a hot body while preventing the hot body from heating the cold one, reversing entropy AkariAkaori (talk) 01:48, 12 April 2015 (UTC)
I had never heard the term "two-way" mirror before seeing this article, but was quite familiar with the term "one-way" mirror. I did a comparison of Google search results to see which term is in more common used and it turns out one-way mirror is about 5 times as common: http://googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=one-way+mirror&word2=two-way+mirror —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.175.216.220 (talk) 05:40, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
I have normally heard and always used "one way" mirror. I have heard people say two-way mirror, but I have heard people say a lot of things. I have understood "one way" mirror in the following sense: That the glass is highly reflective, but far from opaque. As a result, under the circumstances in which it is used, glass acts as a mirror in "one way"/one "direction" and as a "window" in the other. Unlike mirrors which are designed so as to be a "mirror" in one way permanently and to be functionally opaque from the "back" side, a "one way" mirror is set up as a mirror on one side and an observation window on the other. The idea that "two way" mirror should be used here instead is grounded on the idea that since the "opacifying" treatments given to "regular" mirrors are absent, the mirrors in question can readily transmit light in both directions and reflect light in both directions--hence they are "two way" mirrors. I would submit that, by that logic, they are also "two way windows," for indeed, they are capable of being windows in both directions, just a surely as they are mirrors in "two ways." The problem, as well articulated above, is that they are not interesting when they are being mirrors in BOTH directions. When the glass is being a mirror in "two ways" it is also being a window in "two ways" and is therefore in "no way" useful for what everyone in world thinks "one way" mirrors are actually good for--being a mirror in "only" "one way" and a window in "only" "one way" simultaneously. That is the whole point of these mirrors. The closer they come to being "two way" mirrors, the less they are like, well, "one way" mirrors! When they ARE being mirrors in both directions and they are also being windows in both directions, they are aptly described as "two way" mirrors and "two way" windows and are consequently useless as "one way" mirrors. I would suggest to you that in the end we are talking about glass panes. They can be mirrors and/or windows depending on circumstances and use. "One way mirror" describes a use/situation involving a piece of glass acting as a mirror in one direction (principally) and as a window in only one direction (principally). It is most undesirable and ludicrous to name a thing based on a characteristic that is the antithesis of its reason for existing. Furthermore, the term "one way" mirror is mainly a popular one, as is "two way" mirror. When scholarly publications use either term, they use mainly the former. This includes "educational texts" like "Physics for scientists and engineers" by Shelden H. Radin, Robert T. Folk, 1982, p 739; and "scholarly journals" like "Comments on atomic and molecular physics," Volume 28, Page 8 (University of California, 1992). The term appears very often in scholarly journals of psychology and sociology, (rather more often that "two way"). In such contexts it is being used by scientists who actually use these mirrors for experiments. Of course, physicists don't use either term much because the term is a popular one and physicists would normally use use "one"/"two" way mirrors as an expression only to illustrate principles of physics to a lay person who has some notion of a thing commonly called a "one way"/"two way" mirror as a reference point. (In like manner a physicist might talk about reflections off the surface of a "pond." "Pond" is, however, not a physics term.) Incidentally, discussion of a "one-way mirror" is part of the official regents physics syllabus for high schools developed by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. In any case, as stated, both terms are "popular" rather than "technical," and "one way" mirror is far and away the predominate term. "Two way" mirror is apparently a degeneration of this dominate term. It is also a synonym for "window." Neither technical users nor popular users prefer the minority expression "two way mirror." The article name should be changed accordingly.
I'm a land lord and I am interested in purchasing a one way mirror and installing it. Does anyone know where I can buy one? It would be best if it was about the size of a normal bathroom mirror. Thanks! 24.21.194.209 (talk) 08:49, 30 July 2010 (UTC)
The result of the proposal was move to One-way mirror which appears to be the more common name and the way the "general public" refers to the object in question (per the sole reference cited in the article). --rgpk (comment) 18:07, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
Two-way mirror → One-way mirror —Relisted. Vegaswikian (talk) 23:56, 19 December 2010 (UTC) The term "two-way mirror" is uncommon and not preferred by technical or non-technical users. Prothall (talk) 00:39, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
*'''Support'''
or *'''Oppose'''
, then sign your comment with ~~~~
. Since polling is not a substitute for discussion, please explain your reasons, taking into account Wikipedia's policy on article titles.I get both terms about equally common in Google searches [1] [2] which would suggest to me to leave things as they are. Andrewa (talk) 19:00, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
By far the most common form of one-/two- way mirror in my everyday experience is a sort we don't seem to mention at all... it consists of a conventional indirect mirror, with the "back" of the glass silvered and an opaque matt backing layer on top of the reflecting coating, and with narrow parallel lines at about one inch spacing that are transparent, with neither silvering nor backing material.
This allows people behind the mirror to see through quite easily, while those in front have difficulty seeing past the reflection. Such mirrors are particularly effective when the observer is closer to the mirror than the observed, as in supermarket supervisors' offices, or florists' back offices. They don't pretend to be secret, just the opposite, they just give privacy to the observer while letting the observed know that they are on show.
Where do these belong in our coverage? This may be relevant to what we call the article(s). Andrewa (talk) 19:03, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
has anyone ever heard these called a 3 way mirror or is that someone being silly with the common confusion between 1 and 2 sided mirrors? i have heard this type of glass be caleld both 1 and 2 but never 3 sided. who/what would even be a 3rd side on a plain? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.91.9.153 (talk) 04:44, 4 October 2012 (UTC)
This page largely depends on citations to a self-published, unsourced website by a man named Jim Loy, who is not an expert in this area. (He has a BS in Mathematics and no professional experience in optics. Whether or not his information is correct, it's not a reliable source under Wikipedia's guidelines.) Furthermore, these pages no longer exist: the sources point to ten-year-old snapshots on the Wayback machine. I plan to remove all references to this site unless I hear an objection.
I'm also going to remove the claim that "a true one-way mirror does not, and cannot, exist." A form of this claim may be true for some definitions of "one way" for certain types of materials (i.e., passive optics) but one-way mirrors do exist in the general usage of the term, and the word "true" adds none of the required precision to support this statement. ("One-way mirror" is not a scientific term of art where one can say there's some technical meaning different from the common meaning.)
I have no objection to restoring this claim if someone can find a real source and explain the claim with more precision. As it stands it's not only unsourced but it's not literally true. Along with a source, it would need to be phrased in such a way that claims that a particular form of "one way"-ness is not possible, and for what category of materials. Gerweck (talk) 05:46, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
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Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 11:08, 31 March 2016 (UTC)
While this talk page is only ~30k, given the number of old and settled discussions present I'd like to set up automatic archiving. If there's some reason I shouldn't do this please let me know. --Polm23 (talk) 07:06, 5 July 2016 (UTC)
The intro to the article states: "This allows viewing from the side that is lightened but not by the darkened side." If this refers to viewing through the mirror, then it's the wrong way round -- you can see through the mirror from the darkened side and not from the lightened side.Blixton (talk) 18:17, 23 April 2019 (UTC)