I would have thought that left, right, top, bottom were all of the same type ie they all define position maybe ultimately in relation to the human body.
If they are the same kind of thing why should 'left and right' be swapped in a mirror but not 'top and bottom'. One can see why by drawing imaginary lines from the body to it's image but this means that top and bottom and left and right cannot be the same kind of thing. So how could the difference be defined.
2006-08-09 02:57:37 · 11 answers · asked by Douglas M 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Richard B and Dr D - yes but what is the difference between left and right and top and bottom.
So far as I can see we attribute top to the head half , bottom to the feet half, left to the half containing the heart and right to the other half. They are all defintions of halves of the body how can a physical law , reflection, treat apparently the same kind of thing (a half of the body) differently unless they are not the same thing in which case how do they differ?
2006-08-09 03:17:39 · update #1
Excellent excellent question. First one to make me THINK today.
A mirror is an exact reflection of an image that is in front of it. The bottom stays bottom, the top stays top, left stays left and right stays right.
It is only a reverse image of left to right when we use our brains to imagine ourselves in the position of the reflection.
In other words, if you extend your left arm, in the mirror it would look like you extended your right arm.
However, the pure reflection in the mirror still shows the arm being extended on the left side. It is only when you place yourself inside yourself of your own reflected body, that you then imagine that it looks like your right arm was extended.
The reason your brain doesn't do the same with regards to up and down is because it doesn't have to. Remember, the pure reflection keeps everything the same - top on top, bottom on bottom, left on left and right on right. Only when you place yourself inside of your reflection do you imagine left became right and vice versa.
2006-08-09 03:14:40 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Good question! I realy had to think a lot before I got (I think) a sinsible answer.
"Up" and "Down" are absolute concepts. Normally, your head is up and your feet down, those are objective statements.
What is left and right is relative. Your left eye is right to someone looking at you from the front, or through a mirror.
There is an island in the Pacific where the natives don't talk about left and right but about "land-direction" and "see-direction". They would say that a mirror doesn't change anything.
2006-08-09 03:10:22 · answer #2 · answered by helene_thygesen 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A mirror actually doesn't distort left and right. It's a matter of who's point-of-view you are looking from.
It may be a hard concept to wrap your head around, but a mirror reverses "in" and "out" (the 3-D dimensions not in the plane of the mirror). Here's a rudimentary explanation (from a top down point of view):
<--OUT (YOUR BODY) --> IN <-- IN (MIRROR) --> OUT
I'm sure Wikipedia or HowStuffWorks has a webpage explaining it in more detail.
2006-08-09 03:07:01 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Look carefully.I think everything reverses. If you get extra eyes on your head to look into a mirror above you will notice it if you had put an object at one side of your head .
2006-08-09 03:10:03 · answer #4 · answered by gonno 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Consider the object to be made up of thousands of small parts.Each part forms an image directly behind the mirror, same distance as the object. There is no left right, up down for each point. For the collection of points equal distance behind the mirror, leads to left right interchange, but not up down.
2006-08-09 03:06:13 · answer #5 · answered by Dr.Dividend 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Imagine, the mirror is looking at you.
Just like another person would look at you.
Face to face.
Your left is their right.
Your right is their left.
2006-08-09 13:10:13 · answer #6 · answered by Lefty 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i'm not sure how to word it.
if you place a mirror on the floor, then up and down are switched.
The ceiling seems to be "in there" past the floor.
I think it may have something to do with the plane that the reflection is on. Like whether the plane is upright, or on the floor, or anywhere in between.
2006-08-09 03:07:04 · answer #7 · answered by notsureifimshy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lol, if you put mirrors perpendicular, you'll notice that left and right aren't switched, its all optics and how you eye sees light reflecting off of mirrors
2006-08-09 03:21:39 · answer #8 · answered by adklsjfklsdj 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
left and right are different depending on which direction you are facing. Imagine two people. They are standing next to each other and pointing to their right, they are facing the same direction, therefore they are pointing the same way. Now they are standing face to face, and both hold up their right hand. Now it is switched, because they are facing oppositite directions.
left and right depend entirely on the direction you are facing. They are affected by your perspective. Up and down are the opposite to that. Up is always up towards the sky, and down is always down towards the ground. Up and down are not affected by perspective, because they are givens, and never change.
2006-08-09 07:20:24 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Relocate your eyes to your hand may provide the critical clue.
2006-08-09 03:07:18 · answer #10 · answered by ideaquest 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋