Can anyone explain this paradox.
2007-05-14 10:35:55 · 9 answers · asked by aapp04 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The light is reflected from the mirror in a straight line.
Light bounces off the left side of your face, hits the mirror and is reflected back into your left eye, and the equivalent happens to your right side. This is why you see your own face as if you were looking at another person. For up and down to be reversed as well the mirror would have to be concave.
2007-05-14 10:42:01 · answer #1 · answered by Spazzcat 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just think of the light hitting the mirror and bouncing straight back at you. You really are not looking at a reversed image of your self. Your right arm reflects back to you and is still on the right side, but you are used to seeing that as the LEFT arm on people. Top and bottom also come back straight. You are not seeing what you really look like !!! Your right and left sides are swapped.
2007-05-14 17:41:58 · answer #2 · answered by Gene 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Draw a diagram and the result will be trivial. Note that light for this purpose, travels in straight lines and when reflected, reflects at the same angle to the normal to the mirror as it came in. Your eyes see the incoming photons as being emitted from somewhere along the reflected line. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection_%28physics%29 for diagrams.
2007-05-14 17:41:14 · answer #3 · answered by Ron 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You're not standing on your head..the mirror sees you as others see you when you're facing them, your left hand is on their right side ..etc. but your head is in the same place because you (I hope) have only one.. however a blemish on the right side of the face will be reversed on the image.
2007-05-14 18:39:43 · answer #4 · answered by Norrie 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Left and right are not reversed. If you wear a ring on your left hand, look in the mirror and raise your left hand. The person in the mirror will raise the hand with the ring on it. So they are also raising their left hand, since it's the one with the ring.
2007-05-14 17:41:34 · answer #5 · answered by zeb 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Mirrors arent parallel universes where they must be 3-Dimensions... Its simply light reflected, nothing more.. Its not a paradox because they arent anything to be similar to...
2007-05-14 17:41:05 · answer #6 · answered by cbagan89 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
mirrors always reflect, but they do not invert image.. if however, you take a typical convex lens, meaning like a magnifing glass, looks likes its fatter in the middle, and project an image of a light bulb, say, onto a screen, it will be inverted. 180 degrees.. or upside down.
2007-05-14 17:43:00 · answer #7 · answered by JAC 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I had never thought of this. The answers have been interesting also.
2007-05-14 17:45:00 · answer #8 · answered by interested 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't get it either...
2007-05-14 17:38:24 · answer #9 · answered by Jesse 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋