Optical illusion- genuine question?

Question

Hello, right basically I need mild stregth glasses to drive. I have a great eye up close and can read the most minute writing if necessary.

Occassionally I forget my glasses and drive without them.

So, my confusion is this... (when driving without glasses
If I can see super clear close up, home come when i look in my car rear view mirror (a close up image really?) the cars in the mirror have blurred edges?? Like ya know, I just thought - the mirror is a close up image- like a painting

Any ideas on this would be interestin to hear- best ansa chosen as always - thanks

Answer 1

This is due to the fact that the mirror shows a "virtual" image, which appears to your eye to be the distance behind the mirror that it is away from it. So if the car behind you is 20 feet away from your mirror, the image your eye sees appears to be 20 feet behind the mirror.

Answer 2

The mirror is close, but the cars behind you are far.

Your eye actually looks "into" the mirror for about the same distance as the actual car. Even a digital camera will show things blurry when they are a bit outside its focus range.
So you actually are looking into the distance, and not directly at the glass.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

I'm guessing that you have what's called an accomodation insufficiency, and your eyes are having to wrok really hard going from looking at far away things out the windshield, to "close up" things when you look at the mirror. The glasses probably address this to some degree. I'm not sure what exercises you can do to "beef up" your accomodation time. Check w/ eye doc.