Polished metal surfaces reflect light much like the silver layer on the back side of glass mirrors. A beam of light incident on the metal surface is reflected.
Reflection involves two rays - an incoming or incident ray and an outgoing or reflected ray.
In Figure 1 we use a single line to illustrate a light ray reflected from the surface. We show in Fig. 1 that the angles of incidence i and reflection i' are equal by joining the two angles with an equal sign. All reflected light obeys the relationship, called Snell's Law, that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. Just as images are reflected from the surface of a mirror, light reflected from a smooth water surface also produced a clear image. When the surface of water is wind-blown and irregular, the rays of light are reflected in many directions.