Why is a mirror image inverted horizontally, and not vertically?

Question

for a PLANE mirror

Answer 1

I would just like to add to Prof Beatz's answer. It is Front to Back inversion. The concept of right or left is also linked to what you call front and what you call back. Just write something on a transparent or translucent paper and see the same paper from the other side. It would appear just like mirror image of what you had written. Now see the back part of this paper in a mirror and you would see the original message written by you in the mirror.

Answer 2

It's not inverted horizontally. That's an optical illusion that results from the fact that your body is symmetric and you tend to think in terms of left and right. The left and right notion is an observer-centered concept that is subjective rather than objective. So it might look to you that your left hand's reflection is a right hand, but that's only because your hands are symmetric reflections of eachother.

Think of this, though. If you were facing east and looking at a mirror, your north hand would be your north hand in your reflection, and your south hand would be your south hand in your reflection as well. Nothing gets inverted. It only seems to be if you imagine imposing your self-centered (and I mean that it is centered on the self; I don't mean it to be egotistical or whatever we usually mean by self-centered) orientation on the illusion that is your reflection.

But if you had a left leg beneath you and a right leg for a head, it would look like there was top-bottom inversion, because your reflection's head would look like your leg, and your reflection's leg would look like your head.

Answer 3

It isn't. If it were inverted, it would show you as others see you.

Answer 4

This question has been asked many, many times here. What's wrong with all those answers?

Answer 5

duh, it dpends in the miror's shape. it can be vertically inverted too physics 101 remember high school