system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If i put a candle in a box, then put a candle and a mirror in another box, will the one with the mirror be brighter inside? 

thought about this as i put a mirror up in my room. i flicked on a flashlight in the dark and it shone through the mirror to reflect back into the room. then i wondered if the room was actually any brighter now than it was without the mirror.
gpt
Yeah, as JushiBlue pointed out, it depends where you're looking. Some of the first "flashlights" (or torches you crazy Brits you) were basically this principle. Stick a candle in some type of enclosure and a bunch of reflective mirrors to focus the light outward very brightly. That outward light is much brighter than just the candle by itself, but only because it's focused much like a lens.

An easy way to think of it is that a candle in an open enclosure emits light radially, if you use mirrors you're "moving" some of the light that would have gone in other directions into the same direction, thus making it brighter!