The mirror paradox is best stated as a question: why is a mirror image seen as left to right reversed but not top to bottom? It’s a real optical phenomenon by the 3 dimensional spatial world in which we live.
Stephen Law gives an analogy: if you walk through a door that opens on the right side, why does it open on the left side when you come back the other way? The answer is because you turn yourself around. Law argues that if we lived in zero gravity, where you could turn yourself upside down to open the door, it would still open the same way – so the implication is that it’s gravity that creates the emphasis on the vertical axis.
Still with us? Well, this answer is deceptively simple: the mirror doesn’t reverse left to right, or top to bottom, it reverses back to front. We live in 3 dimensions, not 2, and a mirror reverses everything in the dimension perpendicular to its plane. So the rotation is a genuine illusion (it doesn’t happen), but the reversal is a true optical phenomenon.
Then mirrors are both scientific and psychological phenomenon’s to be revered. Shanghai Metal manufactures stainless steel mirrored sheets used in mirrored interior design.
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Sources: Journeyman Philosopher
Siobhan R.// SMC Editor
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