The Mechanism · Gated-generation receipt

gen-explain-real-versus-virtual-images-as-you-would-to-a-capable-88f2

stable pending witness
2026-05-29 04:12:33 UTC · anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5

Prompt

Explain real versus virtual images as you would to a capable student, in 3-4 sentences.
87 chars

Generation

A **real image** forms when light rays actually converge at a point, so you can project it onto a screen—like how a movie projector creates an image on a wall. A **virtual image** forms when light rays only *appear* to come from a point but don't actually meet there—the rays are diverging, so your brain traces them backward to locate the image. You can't project a virtual image on a screen, but you can still see it by looking into the optical device (like seeing your reflection in a flat mirror). The key difference: real images involve actual light convergence, while virtual images involve apparent light sources that exist only from the viewer's perspective.
29 tokens in · 144 tokens out · 5284 ms · $0.0022

The four gates

RED
pass
no disqualifying input patterns detected
FLOOR
pass
output above protective minimum; no mismatches
WAY
pass
no declared way_path (Way check NA); no coercion language
EXECUTION
deferred
no witnesses available (Witness Roll not yet constituted)

Verifier results

scripture_anchors NOT_APPLICABLE
0 Scripture citation(s) extracted
theology_doctrine NOT_APPLICABLE
no doctrine keyword patterns detected

Metrics

Total latency
5295.3 ms
Base LLM
5283.6 ms
Verifiers
0.3 ms
Gates
0.1 ms
Cost
$0.0022

Trail

04:12:33 received prompt_chars=87 verifiers=['scripture_anchors', 'theology_doctrine']
04:12:33 red_gate decision=pass reason=no disqualifying input patterns detected
04:12:38 base_llm_call model=anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5 tokens_in=29 tokens_out=144 latency_ms=5283.6 cost_usd=0.0022
04:12:38 verifier:scripture_anchors verdict=NOT_APPLICABLE summary=0 Scripture citation(s) extracted
04:12:38 verifier:theology_doctrine verdict=NOT_APPLICABLE summary=no doctrine keyword patterns detected
04:12:38 floor_gate decision=pass reason=output above protective minimum; no mismatches
04:12:38 way_gate decision=pass reason=no declared way_path (Way check NA); no coercion language
04:12:38 execution_gate decision=deferred reason=no witnesses available (Witness Roll not yet constituted)
04:12:38 signed hash_algo=sha256 hash=sha256:2184b5cb553c0327d3f0f0fb33adf71ddb5fdd2601bc708883f1dad96f6020d2

Content hash

sha256:2184b5cb553c0327d3f0f0fb33adf71ddb5fdd2601bc708883f1dad96f6020d2

SHA256 over the canonical JSON (excluding this field). Tamper detection. Ed25519 signing planned for v2 once the operator’s signing key is provisioned on disk.

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