Parallel rays of sunlight fall on the flat bonnet of a car. While the paintwork is dull and weathered, people in many different positions can see sunlight reflected from the bonnet. After the paintwork is polished smooth, a bright reflection of the Sun is seen only from a narrow range of positions.
Which statement explains why the bright reflection is seen only from a narrow range of positions?
The polished paint absorbs most of the sunlight, so reflected light reaches only a few positions
The polished paint has nearly parallel local normals, so the reflected rays leave in nearly the same direction
The rays now obey the law of reflection, which they did not obey at the weathered paint
The polished paint gives each ray a different angle of incidence, so the rays reflect in one direction
93 exam-style questions on Edexcel GCSE Physics 5.1 Reflection, refraction and lenses, covering 5.1.1 Reflection, refraction and total internal reflection, 5.1.2 Specular and diffuse reflection, 5.1.3 Colour of light: absorption and filters, 5.1.4 Lenses: power, focal length and shape, 5.1.5 Ray diagrams for converging and diverging lenses, and 5.1.6 Real and virtual images. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.