How come when you look at your reflection in a spoon, your reflection is upside down?...but when you turn the spoon around, on the back, your reflection is upright??...hmm..same with the fork, but not a knife?...hmmm any ideas?
2006-07-23 14:18:38 · 10 answers · asked by LovableLibra84 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
Convex and concave surfaces reflect and refract light differently.
2006-07-23 14:21:50 · answer #1 · answered by rjguy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It has to do with the way the light comes into and exits the spoon. When light waves bounce off the inside curve of the spoon, they are reflected down to the bottom, then back out to you. So the image you see is upside down. It works with the fork the same way. The reason it doesn't work with the knife is that there is no curve to the knife
2006-07-23 14:22:58 · answer #2 · answered by middleschool teacher 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
u have to much free time on your hands
but me too so i looked up the answer
Light rays travel in a straight line until they hit something. A light ray comes straight back only when it hits an object dead on. If the surface of the object is slanted relative to the light, it will cause the light to be reflected at an angle. So, a spoon's surface is curved, both from top to bottom and side to side. And all the light that enters our eye does so in the same direction (we'll call it the horizontal direction). Light from our toes hits the top of the spoon and, because of it's 'downward' slant, gets redirected horizontally. And only light from our head gets reflected horizontally from the bottom of the spoon. Since what we see is WHERE the light came from, we see our toes above our head!
2006-07-23 14:20:08 · answer #3 · answered by His 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This has to do with the relative focal lengths of concave and convex mirrors. Is it the same if you get your eye really, really close? Once the image (your face) gets inside the focal length, the image should no longer be inverted. This would be hard if the spoon or concave mirror had a very short focal length.
2006-07-23 14:23:46 · answer #4 · answered by tbolling2 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Becaus of the concaved area of the spoon. The top of the curved area reflects your chin while the bottom of the area reflexs the top of your head. therefor your image is inverted. Same thing happens with fun house mirrors.
2006-07-23 14:41:58 · answer #5 · answered by s_t_p10 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
its the fact that the inside of the spoon is concave and the outside is convex where a knife is flat. Check out here for a better explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror
2006-07-23 14:21:37 · answer #6 · answered by Jake S 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You need to do some ray tracing on a piece of paper to show why this happens. It has to do with convex and concave mirrors. Take a look at the reference.
2006-07-23 14:22:39 · answer #7 · answered by rscanner 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
good question im not sure tho i am sry but i cant ask anymore questions today and that was the first one i spotted so i asked im really sry but keep an eye out i will be on tomarrow i just dont kno what time so keep watching
2006-07-27 12:50:56 · answer #8 · answered by badb0y69420_2006 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
aww cute I wonderd the same exact thing, I guess its like a mirror kinda opposite!!
2006-07-23 14:21:16 · answer #9 · answered by bettyboop344 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You're so hungry that you start seeing things.
2006-07-25 12:10:15 · answer #10 · answered by Ahmalya 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋