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Old 9th Oct 2011, 23:47
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Loose rivets
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Join Date: Jun 2001
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Odd thing this. Ultra Violet light ( of any significant energy ) does not get re-radiated from the opposite surface of the glass. So sure of this was Richard Feynman, that he looked at the first atomic blast through a lorry windscreen. However, he ended up throwing himself to the floor of the cab with a huge mauve blotch on his vision.

He did know a thing or two. High energy UV can not be reproduced by the atomic structure of glass, but of course, a great deal of lower frequency photons do appear to pass through unhindered.

Not only does the glass seem to act as a filter, but it also has layers of other stuff in it. Gold would be a partial stopper of energy, and reflect a proportion of the light in the first place.

Anyway, UV at a wavelength a tad either side of 3,000 angstrom is the (ho ho ) hot-spot, and huge amounts of light can still give you a tan through glass, but the really critical range is in a bracket that's seemingly 'filtered.'

The process of temporarily raising the energy level of an electron in the glass, seems to not only delay the light, but alter its total energy - despite the individual photon being an exact duplicate in frequency and angle.
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