@michaelmirn Hi Michael, I don’t think you understand it correctly, but then again it is not really easy.
The Fresnel Node in CG is trying to simulate an effect, that is often called the Fresnel effect.
For ease of understanding, let’s imagine, that you are standing at the edge of a lake. Now, look down. You can see through the water. There will also be a faint reflection of your face. If you look at the opposite side of the lake, the water will appear highly reflective. This is what the Fresnel Node is trying to simulate; The Glossy Node represents the reflection (when the Roughness of the Glossy Node is set to 0, the reflection is ‘mirror-like’.). If you would simulate the lake, you would mix a Glass Node with a Glossy Node and use the Fresnel Node to decide the Factor of the Mix Node.
@theluthier used the Fresnel Node as a Factor to mix between a Diffuse and Glossy, to make a paint material.
The Fresnel Node is meant to be used as a Factor of a Mix Node, usually the bottom one being a Glossy Node.
Nowadays we have the Principled BSDF, which has the Fresnel ‘build in’.
It’s actually quite complicated and I hope I didn’t confuse you more than helping;)
