2006-07-07 18:15:58 · 20 answers · asked by Jason 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
It just depends on the angle of your mirror. If it was a spoon, your reflection would be up/down reversed.
2006-07-07 18:18:04 · answer #1 · answered by tingaling 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Okay, every single one of these previous answers is total cock and bull.
The image is left-right reversed because of the way your eyes are oriented. If you sit down and draw a simple schematic consisting of your eyes, the object in question, and the mirror, you'll see what I mean. Your perception of the object in the mirror will always be reversed across the axis perpendicular to the line connecting your eyes and intersecting the midpoint between them.
2006-07-07 18:22:34 · answer #2 · answered by Argon 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In spite of all the smart *ss answers you have gotten so far it is a very good question and not at all as obvious as most people think it is. For instance the fellow that claimed it was because of the way our two eyes are oriented. That seems to make sense but I ask him this. What happens if you shut one eye? Even though a single eye is a point and therefore has no particular orientation, the stuff in the mirror is still left-right reversed. So how does he explain that?
The person who mentioned it was because you were not standing on your head is getting warmer.
The real answer is that things are not flipped left to right in a mirror image, just as they are not flipped up to down. You can easily prove this by doing the following experiment. If you stand in front of a mirror and look at your image your head is up and your feet are down. if you reach out to the mirror and touch your right hand to the mirror you will be touching the image of your right hand. What side of the image is that right hand on? It is on the right side of the image! It has not flipped.
What is confusing about this is if you are facing a real person and reach out with your right hand to touch the hand of the person as if you two were mimicking touching hands with a mirror you would be touching the left hand of that person. That is because to face you the person has turned around and is facing the opposite direction you are. He has spun around on a vertical axis which has flipped his body left to right. It is real life that is flipping left to right NOT the mirror image.
Their head is still up and their feet are still down because that person is not facing you by standing on his head. If he had done that he would have spun around a horizontal axis and therefore would have flipped up and down. Note that if he were standing on his head his right hand would be on the same side of his body as your right hand is.
2006-07-07 18:50:04 · answer #3 · answered by Engineer 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, put your hand in the dirt and pull it away. It's reversed. Works the same way in a mirror. Light bounces off the left side of your face, hits the left side of the mirror, and bounces back into your eye. You're basically pressing your face against the mirror with light.
2006-07-07 18:20:45 · answer #4 · answered by Thomas 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your image is only reversed relative to how your eyes view objects. Each point on your face is shown as a reflection on a straight-line vector to the mirror, meaning that if you touched the mirror, it would reflect the right side of your finger on the right side of where you touched.
SIMPLE EXPLANATION:
It is like if you stood face-to-face with someone, their left is your right, but your up is still there up.
2006-07-07 18:18:51 · answer #5 · answered by cptbirdman 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The image is reversed front-to-back,
Not left-to-right nor up-to-down.
2006-07-07 18:40:41 · answer #6 · answered by Enrique C 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You "see" left and right reversed, but what is actually reversed is front and back. The rest follows from that.
2006-07-07 18:26:00 · answer #7 · answered by Engineer-Poet 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the image is not flipped just straight across from you. Place a long stick or ruler along the side of your head and put the other end at the same place on your image and they will be across from each other. Very simple no actual flipping involved.
2006-07-07 18:18:43 · answer #8 · answered by missmaynard2003 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Have you ever tried to draw a ray diagram of an object placed in front of the mirror ? If not, then try it. You' ll get the answer to your question & I'm 100% sure about it.
2006-07-07 18:24:49 · answer #9 · answered by Sachin B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
use the logic of a stamp... when you dip it in ink and stamp it on paper... does it appear up/down reversed? it only appears left/right inversed... so the mirror is like a paper and we are like the stamp... hope it clears the logic...
2006-07-07 18:18:47 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋