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when you look at the front of a spoon why does your reflection appear upside down and when you look at the back of the spoon your reflection appears right side up

2006-08-31 17:02:28 · 8 answers · asked by Wendal J 1 in Science & Mathematics Other - Science

8 answers

Concave versus convex reflections.

I'll try to explain this as simple as possible without the use of any complicated formulas or diagramas. The convex part of the spoon bends out, and reflects a distorted picture, but in the right position.

However, when you look into the concave part of the spoon, it reverses the reflection. This is going to be kind of hard to explain without equations and stuff, but I think you might understand. Okay, the top part of the side of the spoon that is concave is bent around and facing down. Thus, it reflects what is facing, which is around the middle of your trunk region depending on how you hold it. The bottom of the spoon faces up at your face, and thus, your head is at the bottom of the spoon and as you go up the spoon, it bends out and faces down towards your body and so reflects the lower portions of the body. Do you understand? I tried to make it as simple as possible.

Just know that is because one side is convex, the right side up that is bent out, and the other is concave, the flipped side that is bent in.

2006-08-31 17:06:31 · answer #1 · answered by Just Wondering 777 3 · 0 0

Because the front is concave so when light hits the top of the spoon (from your forehead) it reflects to the bottom of your eye. Light from your chin that hits the bottom of the spoon will hit the top of your eye. You are past the focal point so the image is flipped and light from the top and bottom are criss-crossed. You will notice if you get quite close to the spoon, the image will suddenly flip over. A reflective concave surface makes the light that hits it collect at one spot (which is why many recieving devices are this shape), a focal point so if you are pas this point where everything meets, the light is upside down.

This is hard to explain without a picture. This one might help.
http://sol.sci.uop.edu/~jfalward/reflection/treeconcave.jpg

It is like you are at point C.

On the back the surface is convex so the light is bent outwards or spread out. This is why your face looks somewhat stretched out. But since the top and bottom never cross, it wont look upside-down.

2006-08-31 17:16:13 · answer #2 · answered by iMi 4 · 0 0

The light reflects off of your face and into the front of the spoon. Because of its shape (similar to a satellite dish) all the light is reflected to one point (the focal point). If you are viewing from farther away than the focal point the light rays completely cross and the light that had originally hit the top of the spoon hits the bottom of you eyes. So if you got close enough to the spoon your reflection would appear rightside up, but as you moved the spoon away it would flip.

The backside of the spoon is the same way, except there is no focal point because the light is being reflected away, so its like your closer to the spoon than the focus.

2006-08-31 17:17:45 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

how the light reflects off concave and convex surfaces. The light from your face hits the spoon and comes back into your eye at different angles. Your eye then acts like a lens to focus all this light on your retina. It is something that is very hard to explain with words, but a ray diagram would easily show how the image is focused for each case, one upside down and the other right side up.

2006-08-31 17:10:33 · answer #4 · answered by s_e_e 4 · 0 0

the form of the exterior and how the sunshine is contemplated off that floor determines how we see the image. Our eyes actually see the sunshine contemplated off products and convex scatters the sunshine while concave focuses the sunshine right into a tighter circulate and it hits the decrease back of the retina in yet differently. The concave photograph is how accepted pictures look on the retina and the ideas does not opposite it because it many times might. If the ideas did no longer opposite the pictures for us we would all see issues the different way up!

2016-09-30 05:40:24 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

the concave shape of the inside of the spoon causes this distortion of the reflection

2006-08-31 17:12:28 · answer #6 · answered by Fade__Out 4 · 0 0

challenging situation. query from yahoo or google. this could help!

2014-12-01 20:12:23 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

one side is convex and other is concave

2006-08-31 17:04:54 · answer #8 · answered by rav 4 · 0 0

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