Do normal house hold mirrors reflect different types of light other then visible light?

Question

Do normal house hold mirrors reflect different types of light other then visible light?

Answer 1

This is one of the sexiest questions I've seen posed here on Yahoo answers.  

My first instinct:  of course they do, but not ALL types of light.  If you take a look at the electromagnetic spectrum, we've got things like X-rays kicking around.  

I'm almost 99% positive that X-rays are not reflected by normal household mirrors, or for one thing, the TSA would have a real fun time asking everyone to remove anything silver from their luggage every time people fly.

This would be one of those fun experiments to run if we had infrared goggles.  Take an IR photoresistor and hold it up to a mirror.  If you happen to have this gear, give it a shot and let me know.  But on to random guesses at an explanation!

Now in my mind, there's no reason that a household mirror, capable of reflecting all of the visual wavelengths, should have any kind of discontinuity in its reflectance as soon as the wavelength of light is no longer perceivable by the human eye.

Looking at random examples:  Some people like to think that the action of a Faraday Cage (a metal mesh container that blocks radio waves) reflects radio waves (very low frequency EM waves).  Microwaves can be reflected by a piece of metal, according to various physics sites online.  The higher the frequency of the EM wave, the more penetrating power it has.  

I like to think that EM waves are reflected when they are absorbed by electrons in the object they are attempting to pass through.  The higher the frequency of the EM wave, the more likely it is to 'sneak' past the electrons without exciting them enough to have them create a reflection.  In the Faraday cage example above, radio waves are so low in frequency, with such huge wavelengths, that they are reflected by a metal mesh, as opposed to a solid piece.

So, X-rays, gamma rays may not be reflected by a house mirror, but lower frequency waves, like infrared, microwave and radio probably are....