My daughter wanted to know why does her reflection turn upside down when she looks into a spoon but when she looks on the other side her reflection is the right way up
2006-10-25 05:38:06 · 14 answers · asked by jas 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
Let's see if I can explain this. You will have to use your imagination. Imagine you were in a gym. You dribble a basketball straight down and it bounce straight back up. Right? Light behaves the same way. This is why you can see your reflection in a mirror. If you bounce the basketball to your left it will bounce away to your left. Bounce it to your right and it will bounce right. Now. Here is where your imagination comes in. Imagine the floor of the gym curved up on either side of you as if you were standing in the bowl of a giant spoon. It would curve up in front of and behind you too. Now, if you bounce the ball straight down it will bounce straight back up just like before but if you bounce it to the left it will bounce upward and to your right due to the curvature of the floor. Try a few other directions in your mind. To the right and it bounces left. In front of you and it bounces over your head and behind you. Light behaves the same way. That's why you see your reflection upside down and backwards in a spoon. Incidentally, the bowl of the spoon is a type of concave mirror. Have your daughter research how concave mirrors are used in everything from flashlights to telescopes.
2006-10-25 05:56:25 · answer #1 · answered by JimWV 3 · 5⤊ 1⤋
Because one side of the spoon is concave which flips the image upside down at the focal point. The other side is convex which has a focal point on the inside (you can't see it). If you could see through the convex side (which you can't) you would see the image flipped over.
2006-10-25 05:41:35 · answer #2 · answered by Chris J 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because when you look at a spoon you enter the spoon microcosm...for just the time you are looking at the spoon, your world is turned upside down by the power of the spoon!!!
2006-10-25 05:40:47 · answer #3 · answered by fizzy_wolf 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Its all to do with real and virtual images and where they appear in relationshp to the focal point dictated by the spoon shape.
One side of the spoon gives you a real image, while the other, a virtual image.
2006-10-26 05:30:41 · answer #4 · answered by Bill N 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if the side you look in is concave(the inner curved portion) then the image formed is flipped upside down at the focus forming an inverted image. the other side is convexand the image formed is always erect
2006-10-25 06:57:26 · answer #5 · answered by mandy 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because you are looking into a concave and you appear upside down.
2006-10-25 06:07:47 · answer #6 · answered by Andyp P 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because of the way light reflects on a concave surface.
2016-05-22 13:02:04 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
it's the concave / convex thing. the inside is concave so your reflexion alters, but the outside is convex and shows your reflexion as normal-ish! i think i got them the right way round, but don't quote me on that, it's been a long time since i was taught this at school.
2006-10-25 05:42:33 · answer #8 · answered by Miss Tickle 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you are upside down not the reflection
2006-10-25 05:59:04 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
its because all of the people who live in spoons are in australia.
2006-10-25 05:48:06 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋