(no subject)
http://digg.com/science/Humans_Do_Not_Understand_Mirror_Reflections_-_Researcher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror
"Since humans do not understand mirrors maybe we should ask a dog or a fish how they work. "
"Mirrors are hightech. "
"I thought mirrors were where I download stuff from when the main server is slow? "
"wha, how can you understand that you dont understand? "
po teme:)
There is no person in the mirror. That's the big thing here. The right side of the image reflected back at you is still the right side of your body. If there WERE a person in the mirror then indeed that would be the left side of his/her body, but that isn't the case. People have a difficult time understanding mirrors because we assume that the reflection is actually a person looking back at us. It isn't.
Let's pretend we have a transparency (like for an overhead projector) with the word "WHAT" printed on it. Now let's hold it in front of us... it says "WHAT". Now let's hold it in the same orientation, but in front of a mirror. Look in the mirror... it still says "WHAT". Neat huh?!? Now if there were a real person in the mirror holding the transparency, they would have a hard time reading the sheet they were holding, but once again: there is no person.
Now let's pretend that someone is behind you watching you observe your reflection. They see you holding your red ball up in your right hand, but the person in the mirror has it in his/her left hand??? What's going on? (hint: there is no person in the mirror... but our mind assumes there is). The person behind you is seeing the front of you (in the mirror) from the perspective of being behind you.
I suppose you could think of this as such: you're walking down the street and Superman is behind you using his x-ray vision to look through you and see your face. His view would be the view you are seeing in the mirror. It's not flipped, it's just something you can't actually do... except for in a mirror.
Just remember: you're not seeing an actually person in the mirror... you're just superman looking through the back of your own head.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror
"Since humans do not understand mirrors maybe we should ask a dog or a fish how they work. "
"Mirrors are hightech. "
"I thought mirrors were where I download stuff from when the main server is slow? "
"wha, how can you understand that you dont understand? "
po teme:)
There is no person in the mirror. That's the big thing here. The right side of the image reflected back at you is still the right side of your body. If there WERE a person in the mirror then indeed that would be the left side of his/her body, but that isn't the case. People have a difficult time understanding mirrors because we assume that the reflection is actually a person looking back at us. It isn't.
Let's pretend we have a transparency (like for an overhead projector) with the word "WHAT" printed on it. Now let's hold it in front of us... it says "WHAT". Now let's hold it in the same orientation, but in front of a mirror. Look in the mirror... it still says "WHAT". Neat huh?!? Now if there were a real person in the mirror holding the transparency, they would have a hard time reading the sheet they were holding, but once again: there is no person.
Now let's pretend that someone is behind you watching you observe your reflection. They see you holding your red ball up in your right hand, but the person in the mirror has it in his/her left hand??? What's going on? (hint: there is no person in the mirror... but our mind assumes there is). The person behind you is seeing the front of you (in the mirror) from the perspective of being behind you.
I suppose you could think of this as such: you're walking down the street and Superman is behind you using his x-ray vision to look through you and see your face. His view would be the view you are seeing in the mirror. It's not flipped, it's just something you can't actually do... except for in a mirror.
Just remember: you're not seeing an actually person in the mirror... you're just superman looking through the back of your own head.