The colour silver (and computer screens)

My Dad insists the it is possible to make a computer screen go silver, so silver that it turns into a mirror. I have tried to explain about pixels, but he doesn't understand it so how do I explain that a screen is light and you can't just make it shiny as it is emitting light, and well it just doesn't work.

So how do I explain how a screen works?

Solution 1:

Tell him it's like a TV. The screen itself has a light behind it, and the light is what makes the image. There are colored pixels in front of the light on the screen's surface which allow it to display images.

It won't work as a mirror since the screen surface is not reflective. It will display a silver color, but it is basically going to be a silver colored light.

You can't use a lightbulb as a mirror and you can't use a monitor as one either.

Solution 2:

I think your dad is thinking of really old LCD displays. They had a mirror in the back, and if you made them all black, you'd allow light to pass to the back, you'd get a weak mirroring effect. Those days are well gone, and the mirrors are gone, replaced with backlights.

As an example, he no longer can play with the choke on his carburetor to help morning starts, tech has moved on to fuel injection, and no more mirrors.

If you really want to explain, get a flashlight, some colored plastic. show him how colors are made by shining the light through the plastic, and covering some of the plastic colors. or http://www.howstuffworks.com/lcd.htm