Egotistic

Mirror Reflection

by admin on September 8th, 2010

filed under Mirrors

Why is it, that short sighted people cannot see an image clearly in a mirror of a reflection far away?

Say you have moderately bad eyesight whilst you are driving, and you look in your rear view mirror which is only a foot away from you. Why is it that you cant read a number plate that is physically meters away - when the reflection is but feet infront?

Imagine looking at a tree 50m behind a window, say 1m away.

Light passes through the window. You aren't seeing the image on the window, you are seeing the tree behind the window. Your eyes still have to focus 50m away to see a tree.

A mirror is no different, except that it changes the direction of light. You aren't seeing the image of the tree 1m away in the window, you are seeing it 50m away. Your eyes still have to focus on a point 50m behind the mirror in order to see a tree in focus.

Now, if you replaced the mirror (or window) with a TV camera and screen, then the light is emitted from the same plane (the TV screen) and would be in focus at 1m. This is also why you loss the 3D nature of what you are looking at. Every point on the TV screen is exactly 1m away and you can clearly see anything by only focusing your eyes to 1m.

Tags: design, javascript, mirror, mirror reflection, mirror reflection game, mirror reflection in photoshop, mirror reflection physics, mirror reflection quotes, reflection, webdesign
Posted in Mirrors | Leave a Comment