When one looks into a mirror, one see an image of himself....

When raising one's right hand, the image raises its left. When raising one's left, the image raises its right.

So, why is it that the mirror reverses left and right, but not top and bottom? Why does a mirror appear to invert the left-right directions, but not up-down?

It's all in your mind. The mirror technically reflects front and back (or your reflection would face away from you... scary!). Your mind rotates the reflection so it faces away from you, then identifies left and right as right and left. If you were a little insane and irrational, your mind might rotate the reflection so your reflection was upside-down, and then left and right would be fine.

Posted by Tristan on 2004-02-03 22:32:15