If a mirror makes things look backwards, why doesn't it make thinks look upside down?
89741
A mirror CAN make things look upside down.  Stand in front of a mirror and hold a book up so you're reading the cover.  Now, turn the book so the cover faces the mirror and you can see the book cover in the mirror.  Normally you would rotate the book about a vertical axis, THIS is when the left and right reversal takes place.  You could instead turn the book upside down.  Then the reflection of the cover WOULD be upside down, and not backwards.\n\nOther answers given:\nRefraction does not happen. Only reflection.  Refraction has to do with the bending of light when it goes from one medium (such as air) to another medium (such as water).  It has nothing to do with the question.\n\nBecause our eyes are next to each other.  Close one eye and prove to yourself that that answer is nonsense.\n\nAlthough it seems backwards its really not.  Prove this is wrong by holding a book to a mirror and trying to read it.
234011
Real mirrors aren't 100% effective, so each time the light bounced off a mirror, some would be absorbed.  Plus, there's also you with your flashlight in the room, and most of the light that hits you would be absorbed.  So, the answer is that the light would be absorbed and converted to heat, just like it would in a room without mirrors.
161633
Why do we appear backwards in the reflection of a mirror? How do we see our true image?\n\nWebsite below has the answers.
187887
I feel its the opposite. Because every object absorbs all colours in the white light and reflects only a particular colour which is seen by your eyes. Now there are many times where the eye can be fooled like the forward mails you would have seen (optical illusion ones).\n\nIf something is Blue its actually the opposite of blue, that is, all other colours mixed but blue ;) \n\nIf something looks black, its merely not capable of reflection, so you dont know what its colour is...\n\nhehehehehehe wierd theory right?
8264
It's because of the minor imperfections in the placement of the mirrors. Also, because the effect can't be seen without seeing it at an angle, it causes a curve based on your viewpoint.
497011
It works by having little mirror slices at different angles. As light is reflected off the orb, the little slices separates the light into several colours briefly and the process is repeated.
565258
A mirror reflects light.  Light from an object strikes the mirror and changes direction so that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.  As a result, light appears to come from behind the mirror, at an apparent distance equal to the distance they are in front of the mirror.\n\nI see no connection to the Boognish.
601884
mirror is designed to reflect the light and no refraction light .. from it .. so the reflection angel will be zero
730887
I have a pair of those interesting deep-dish-shaped double-domed parabolic mirrors from Edmund Scientific, the top one sits upside-down on the bottom one, and the top one has a hole in it.  So when you put something inside it, and move away at an angle, an image of the object appears to be sitting above the top dish.  I ask people, "Hand me that little pink pig sitting on that dish".  They see it, reach for it, pick up nothing, reach for it again, and see their fingers apparently pass right through a solid object.\n\nWhat is the reality there?  My eyes tell me there's a little pink plastic pig sitting on the top of that dish.  Yet when I try to pick it up, my fingers pass right through it.  But then I distort the mirrors a little, and the pig blurs in an odd way that lets me see that he's actually a reflected image from inside the unit.  And if I understand optics sufficiently, I understand that it is possible, with certain arrangments of parabolic mirrors, to erect "real" images (versus the more common "virtual" images that we see in most mirrors and lens) of objects, and even design and build versions of my own, with the effects and capabilities fully determinable in advance.  That's reality.\n\nReality does exist.  Granted, we have a limited and distorted view of it due to the limitations of our senses, but it does exist.  For example, this desk in front of me seems like a solid object.  But in truth, my view of it is limited by the fact that my eyes are not able to resolve the electrons orbiting the nuclei that make up the desk, and that the vast majority of this desk is vacuum, therefore the fact that, when I touch this supposedly-solid desk, what's actually happening is that the electrostatic field generated by the electrons of the desk are exerting a force against the electrostatic field of the electrons orbiting the nuclei of the atoms making up my fingers.  There are no "solids" touching anything, just fields pushing against each other the way 2 magnets can push against each other.\n\nTo me it looks like reality begins immediately outside your eyes.  All is reality.  The only place it ends is inside your head, when you misinterpret what your limited senses tell you.
116013
do u mean speed? no, the magnitude is stillt he same but the direction is changed if and only if the mirror has a smooth surface. cause if it is not. there would be many angle of reflection
967896
You see a mirror in a mirror in a mirror in a mirror ......\nThere are various gadgets using this effect. \nFor instance if you put a lightbulb between the two mirrors and look throug the one way mirror you will see (depending how parallel you've managed to put the mirrors) lots of lightbulbs disappearing into infinity. I know 'cause I've done it!
834330
Because the mirror reflects whatever is directly in front of it.  Your left hand is directly in front of the right side of the mirror.  Your head is directly in front of the top of the mirror.
459285
Photos capture an image of light.  And mirrors essentially reflect photons. We know that photons, particles of light, have wave/particle properties and when they are reflected off of an object, they are affected by the surface of the object of mirror. Look at your self on both side of a spoon.  The concave part, the one that is curved in, should have an upside down version of you, and on the otherside, convex, you will have an elongated version of yourself.  \nIf you look at the queston from a quantum phsyics perspective.  Every time you look in the mirror, you will see a different you. This is because you are actually seeing different light reflecting off a different surface.  \nI really dont know much about cameras, but thank God for photo shop.  Mirrors are a bad invention in my opinion.  People get caught up in having to maintain an external image that the rest of the world sees, when in reality the image of ourselves that we should really work on is the one inside our heads.  Anyways, I hope I answered your question to some extent.
108047
reality (the first answerer) is mostly correct, but it's more of a phychological effect than an optical illusion. When you look in the mirror and raise your right hand, it looks like "the guy in the mirror" is raising his left hand. Because of this, you perceive the mirror to be flipping left and right. But all the light is just being reflected directly back. If you hold writing up to the mirror, it looks backwards left to right. If you hold it vertically, it looks backwards top to bottom. There is no left-right top-bottom asymmetry. Think about it for awhile and you will realize that a mirror doesn't "flip" anything, it's all in your mind.
207353
When you see an object, you see the light bouncing off of that object.  When you see an object in a mirror you see the same light it just makes one more bounce off of the mirror before it reaches your eyes.\n\nMirrors are unique in that they bounce all visible light the same and in a regular way.  This allows you to recognize the objects that are reflected in them as if you were seeing them directly.
789707
Besides the fact that a mirror reverses your image and a photo doesn't, there is one other difference.  In order to see you image in a mirror you have to look directly at it so your image is always staring right back at you.  When your picture is taken you might be looking at the camera or somewhere else.  Your picture doesn't have to be staring right at you for you to see it so you often can see yourself from different angles than are possible with a mirror.  As an experiment try using two mirrors such as are found in some vanities.  By looking at a reflection of a reflection you can see yourself in a mirror from different angles.  Does these images seem more like your photos?
288139
That caved-in side of the spoon is "concave" and the other side is "convex".\n\nYou can see yourself upside down in any concave shaped mirror, when your distance from the mirror is favorable for that to happen.\n\nGet one of those so called shaving mirrors ans stand at different distances from it and observe the results.