Jim Kelley wrote:
Do you have trouble understanding that reflection changes the direction
of the reflected waves?

If you include wave cancellation as a mechanism for
energy reflection, I agree 100%. See the interferometer
example below.

I understand that a physical power reflection coefficient
of 0.5 cannot cause 100% reflection as you say it does.

One wonders why you have not commented on the interferometer
experiment that intercepted the energy reflected from the
standard output during destructive interference and routed
it to the non-standard output thus illustrating an equal
amount of constructive interference.

http://www.teachspin.com/instruments...eriments.shtml

"Using Dielectric Beamsplitters to find the "missing energy"
in destructive interference - Where is the energy of the light
going in an interferometer adjusted for destructive interference?
Below is a schematic diagram showing a way to detect the non-standard
output of a Michelson interferometer—the light *heading back toward*
*the laser source*. That is, when interference is destructive at
the standard output, it is constructive at the non-standard output.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com