Retroreflectors; they're everywhere, and they cheat physics (sort of)
1,647,533
Published 2020-08-31
Links!
Geoff's and Steve's videos (respectively);
• Cube Reflectors on the Underground
• Why you'll never see a right angle on...
My usual links;
Technology Connextras (the second channel that stuff goes on sometimes):
/ @technologyconnextras
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All Comments (21)
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His appearance says 1960's bully, while his words say nerd. His studio says late 90's TV show, his jokes say biology teacher. His outro music says 1980's instructional video, his cat says nothing. Alec you're all over the place. Just as you should be.
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"This is a cat." I really appreciate the visual aids on this channel.
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It's quite a sight from the cab of a fire engine heading to an emergency at 3 in the morning when no one else is on the road. Every road sign, mile marker, mailbox reflector and driveway marker reflects your emergency lights right back at you and makes the world look like a giant red-themed disco club.
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My fiancée is a truck driver (18-wheeler,) and we are currently driving at night. So excited to hear you ask what we see from a truck cab! The reflections look just as bright to both of us as they do from a car. We love your channel!
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Ex truck driver here. I've never had issues reading signs at night, unless it had fine print. For example, while driving in New Jersey, I saw a sign that read, "Garden State Parkway," but I didn't see the tiny writing on the bottom of the sign that read, "no vehicles over 5t GVW." That didn't end well...
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"Drivers are idiots" Can confirm. Have driven, am idiot.
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I still say retro reflective tape is best used to put eye shaped cutouts high in trees overhanging roads and bicycle trails in sketchy, poorly lit areas.
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Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the dedication it took for him to hold that face the entire time the mirror was panning across? He made damn sure that gag landed.
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Truckers can see the reflectors just as well. They "fade" sooner though, but it's not an issue since they've served their purpose at that point. (Source - me: trucker for 6 years) Fun fact - a lot of road paint also has glass beads in it in order to create a reflective surface. (Source - me: road painter for...about a month) (edit... Oh... You covered that...I commented too soon. I should have known you'd cover that... Ok :)
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love that there's a VHS tape holding up the mirror.. making it a retro reflector
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The reason they often don't use a retro reflector on garage doors is because, like you also mentioned in your video, cars also have these reflectors, so they might cause false signals for the sensor. I have had this as an driver of a first responder vehicle wich had retro reflective striping. The sensor registered it's signal bouncing of from the striping and the garage door closed on top of my ambulance. They quickly converted the system to the set-up with the LED and the receiver on seperate ends.
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The "wrong way" lane reflectors (potentially) saved my life once! I moved to a new city with much bigger and wider roads with a lot more lanes on each side than I was used to. One time I was driving at night and I went through a huge intersection with multiple entrances and exits to the highway and I went down the wrong direction - fortunately there was almost no one else around anyway because it was late, but I realized my mistake almost immediately because suddenly the whole road was covered in red light.
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I’m cracking up at the slow pan with his face reflected on the mirror. Give this man a prime time show on discovery or something
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I drive a truck, despite the headlights being 6' lower than my eyes, retroreflectors work very well and I am very grateful they are a thing. Especially cats eyes. Thanks for the videos
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“luckily, i have one right here!” oh he’s going to whip up a cat’s eye (puts cat on table)
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“Remember science? The process? Ah. Good times.” <- feeling this so much lately.
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"This is a cat" remains my favorite subverted expectation joke on this website of all time solely because of how elegantly it fits into the video
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That pan over the mirror was everything I could have hoped for.
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The sentence "This is a cat." made me laugh way harder than it should.
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Around 0:40 you can see pinpoints of light on the ground. These are likely insect eyes and spider eyes which also act like retroreflectors.
