why does a mirror give a lateral inversion?

Answer 1

Actually, it doesn't, but not because of psychology. What it does is give us front/back inversion. If a copy of you were standing in front of you in the same orientation as you are, you would see their back, and their right hand would be on the right, and their head would be on top. The only part of this that is different in a mirror is that you do not see their back. So the inversion that occurs is really front/back, not left/right.

Answer 2

It doesn't. It does, by definition, give us a reflection. The question is why do we consider two images to be related by the operation of "lateral inversion" if one image is of an object and the other is of the reflection of an object (in a flat mirror)?
that, my friend, is psycology. Although, I suppose you could claim that there is a simple mathematical relationship between the points on each image and that therefore it is not just psycology. But and image of a thing is NOT the same as the image of a reflection of a thing, even if we confuse them a little by lumping them into the same category (as images).
I suppose the simplest answer is: because the angle of reflection is the same as the angle of incidence. AH, but as perhaps you realize, that is just restating the premise! WHY is light reflected from a mirror at the same angle as it impinges the mirror on?Maxwell's equations for electromagnetics can be solved to show this is true, but still doesn't answer why it is true and why those equations hold. So, the least satisfactory answer is the most true: because thats the way it is (alternatively, because thats the way God made it).

Answer 3

Because the light goes in straight lines from the object being observed to our eyes, most often ourselves. So light from our right arm goes to the mirror and comes back and we see it on the right and the same for the left.
But when we raise our right arm, we see the image move and compare it to a person walking toward us and if it were a person we would say they were lifting their left arm and conclude that the mirror is showing us to ourselves "wrong". The clearest proof that the image is not being inverted by the mirror is that the top and bottom are in the right place.
If we place two mirrors at a right angle along the upright edge we are disconcerted to see our image appear in the corner and if we move our right arm the right arm of the image (to our left) moves and we find this disconcerting because we are used to flat mirrors. The image from our body is reflecting from one mirror, then into the other mirror, then back to us and is inverted.

Answer 4

Because ray lights fall directly on it, drawing the image of the object symmetrically to the plane that is perpendicular on the plane you stand on, and that separates the object from the mirror. If you were behind the mirror, being able to see the image formed on it (not the object directly/immediately), there would be no inversion.