Literally a shower thought, as I was hanging my shaving mirror.

  • xia@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 days ago

    There was a time that i was really confused as to why a mirror regardless of orientation would change left-hands to right, but not transpose heads and feet (or the like)…

    • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Why does a mirror flip north/south but not east/west then?

      Intro to space travel and navigational queues: your up or my up?

      • xia@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 days ago

        Here’s a hint: if a mirror truly did not flip anything, then when you looked into a mirror you would see your back, and it also does not “rotate” you. So how can you see your front?

        spoiler

        A plane has a “normal” (a direction coming “out of the mirror”), and it basically flips things in that direction (front to back). It might help the understanding (and possibly the creepiness factor) to consider just the outer few atoms of your hair/skin that reflects light… and you are roughly seeing that, in the mirror in the same orientation that it actually is IRL if it were pushed into the mirror…