Question

If a mirror reverses right and left, why does it not reverse up and down?

Answer 1

Hint Think of the phenomenon of reflection in detail, think how light comes from an object and falls in our eyes and the image forms in our retina hence enabling us to see. If you consider light rays coming from our body which goes and strikes the mirror and reflects back to our eyes, we will get the answer.

Step by step Solution
Mirrors don’t reverse left and right either – that’s just our interpretation of what happens. Our reflection in the mirror is actually reversed front to back . If you have a mole on the left side of your face, it still appears on the left side of the reflection. But we are used to seeing the faces of other people and we instinctively perform the mental rotation because we know that they have turned through 180 degrees to face us. The image in the mirror is reflected, not rotated, so when we rotate it back in our head, it appears reversed.

Note
It is due to the phenomenon of reflection that this happens. Considering refraction of lenses, what appears to us after wearing an eye lens is actually the same since refraction only involves light passing from that surface.