My Kitchen Reflection Mystery: Bikes, Jumpers, and a Ghostly Shape

[wolram]

My kitchen window looks into an (out house) the out house is where i keep my bikes so it is securely locked.
So at night i am cooking a meal and see my reflection in the window just as clear as in a mirror.
I am wearing a stripey jumper which also shows clearly in the reflection, as i move about i notice another (assumed) reflection, only it is just a white shape that matches the out line
of the first, the second reflection doe's move but doe's not match my movement exactly,
and the first reflection can mask the second.
I have tried to reproduce this effect tonight with no luck, when i told my daughter about it the first thing she said was ghosts, i do not believe in ghost so i would love to find a rational explanation.
Any one? No i was quite sober.

 

[lisab]

Do you have double- or triple-paned windows? Sometimes one of the panes will be warped and the reflection will do strange things.

 

[wolram]

Do you have double- or triple-paned windows? Sometimes one of the panes will be warped and the reflection will do strange things.

The window is single glass, this is driving me nuts, i have looked all over for some thing that could reflect, the only thing i can find is an old silencer (muffler) chrome plated and that is laying end on to the window.

 

[misgfool]

Maybe this is too obvious, but what if something was/is waiting on the other side of the glass at nights when you are cooking, wearing stripey jumper and moving. The truth is out there.

 

[wolram]

Maybe this is too obvious, but what if something was/is waiting on the other side of the glass at nights when you are cooking, wearing stripey jumper and moving. The truth is out there.

The biggest thing that could get in the out house is a spider, the door is bolted and my bikes live there, so there is no way i would ever leave the door un bolted.

 

[Danger]

What was the weather like? Any chance of frost-fog? A cloud of insects? Maybe a reflection of another reflection from behind you in the kitchen?

 

[WarPhalange]

this is driving me nuts,

There's your problem. ;)

 

[glondor]

Trans dimensional ectoplasm. Or imagination.

 

[wolram]

What was the weather like? Any chance of frost-fog? A cloud of insects? Maybe a reflection of another reflection from behind you in the kitchen?

It was 7c and raining, i am sure as you say a reflection of a reflection, it is just i can not find a reflecting surface to cause it.
Could some thing filter out the detail and throw a full sized reflection back?

I have had another look and all that is in line of sight of the window is little compressor and some cardboard boxes.

 

[wolram]

Trans dimensional ectoplasm. Or imagination.

I do not believe in ghosts, as for imagination i doubt it, i wanted my dinner not mess around trying to find a reflection.

 

[Proton Soup]

maybe extraterrestrials.

 

[wolram]

maybe extraterrestrials.

Okay, so may be my house is built over an ancient alien burial site

But i would prefer some other explanation.

Light can cause some weird effects, mirages etc.

 

[Proton Soup]

Okay, so may be my house is built over an ancient alien burial site

But i would prefer some other explanation.

Light can cause some weird effects, mirages etc.

are you wearing eyeglasses? that's another reflective surface or two.

 

[Andre]

Perhaps the window is not thoroughly clean and a faint dust film on the outside is revealing the same pattern as the reflection. Then the not exact reflect could be explained from perspective differences between front glas reflection and back light up of the dust.

Next time when it is duplicated, clean the outside of the glass and look again to see if the ghost has disappeared.

 

[Danger]

Good idea, Andre. That would be like having a partially-reflective front surface mirror with another partially-reflective rear surface one behind it.
The only thing that might mess that up depends upon what Woolie meant by the second image not matching his movements exactly. (It would mess up my ideas as well.) If it was strictly a matter of specific motion, no problem. If there was a time discrepancy, however, it would change everything.

 

[wolram]

There was no time difference in me moving and the reflection moving, just an exaggeration of movement one time, all the other times it seemed to move less than i did.
No matter what i can not duplicate it, i have even tried several times to do exactly what i did that night.
I guess i will just have to put it down to of those things, the window was not very dirty, just enough to show on a clean cloth.

 

[Danger]

the window was not very dirty, just enough to show on a clean cloth.

That's enough to do it, especially if it was a light-coloured contaminant.

 

[wolram]

That's enough to do it, especially if it was a light-coloured contaminant.

I recon i can say solved then

 

[Danger]

Probably... but you still might be haunted...

 

[neu]

I have tried to reproduce this effect tonight with no luck, when i told my daughter about it the first thing she said was ghosts, i do not believe in ghost so i would love to find a rational explanation.
Any one? No i was quite sober.

My first suspicion is that it's your daughter.

 

[Moonbear]

Since you said it was raining when it happened and it was only single-paned glass, it could have just been that the window steamed up a bit between the warmth inside from the cooking and the chill and damp outside. That would be very hard to replicate exactly.

 

[wolram]

Since you said it was raining when it happened and it was only single-paned glass, it could have just been that the window steamed up a bit between the warmth inside from the cooking and the chill and damp outside. That would be very hard to replicate exactly.

I am not sure how the science works, so i will just agree i would however like to see
the the anomaly repeated.

 

[Evo]

It was your doppleganger.

 

[wolram]

It was your doppleganger.

No i am sure he was securely zipped in.

 

[Evo]

No i am sure he was securely zipped in.