Why do mirrors only reverse things horizontally?
548003
What you see in a mirror depends on how the light bounces off the mirror and into your eyes. When light hits a mirror, it bounces off in the same way that a ball would bounce off the mirror. If you threw a ball straight at a flat mirror, it would bounce straight back. If the mirror was curved so that the ball struck the surface at an angle, it would bounce away at an angle. \n\nWhen you look into an ordinary flat mirror, the image of your face is right side up: Your hair is on top of your head and your chin is underneath. To reach your eyes, the light from your hair hits the mirror at a slight angle and then bounces into your eyes from above - which is why you see your hair on top and your image as right side up. \n\nAs everyone knows, a flat mirror reverses your right side and your left side. How does it do that? Suppose you are standing face to face with another person. If your right ear points toward the east, his or her left ear will point toward the east. Now, instead of facing another person, suppose you are facing a flat mirror with your right ear pointing to the east. The light from your right ear will bounce off the flat mirror and enter your eyes from the east. Even though your east ear is the east ear of the image, your right ear has become the left ear of the image! (Yes, this is a little mind-boggling at first reading. But once you get it, it will seem simple.)
38582
I realize I am out of my league as far as physics,, but the image reflects directly back to the source in front of it. For the reflection to appear upside down or vertically mirrored the light would have to be bent.\n\nok looked it up.  It is because of the predicatable behavior of light known as the law of reflection
126763
This is due to the optics inside of a microscope.  Look in any biology book on the chapter about microscopes and they'll probably have a cross section of how microscopes work.  If you trace the light rays, you will see that they object will definitely be upside down, most likely due to a concave lens or combinations of convex and concave lenses inside the lens system (microscope).
573495
Isnt it the other way round??
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.
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!
308954
After the Earth formed and all the component asteroids and other proto-planetary debris coalesced the residual spin from the collisions left us spinning counter-clockwise.  Were there to be another collision, a series of collisions, or close interaction with some super-massive object (i.e. black hole, brown dwarf, etc.) with enough momentum or gravity to retard, stop or reverse our rotation, it could definitely do so.  Venus is an example of a planet in a retrograde rotation (probably because some massive impact reversed its spin), so it is definitely possible...hell, Uranus spins almost 90 degrees out of alignment with the orbital plane.  Most planets in our solar system spin in relatively the same direction, and that is likely to be the case in most systems in the universe, but it is by no means set in stone.
496604
Try doing this with an asymmetric figure. The translation and reflection won't give the same result.\n\nHowever, you can get any translation by doing *two* reflections one after the other.
59344
A mirror preserves absolute direction, both horizontally and vertically.  Say you're facing west; the reflection of your north hand is on the same side of the room as your real north hand -- namely the north side.  And the reflection of the top of your body is toward the ceiling, just like the real top of your body.  That's because north vs. south and up vs. down are the same for everybody.  But right and left are not absolute directions.  Your north hand is on the right because you're facing west.  If someone were facing east, their north hand would be on the left.  And your reflection in this example _is_ facing east because you are facing west, and the reflection is looking back at you.  So, your reflection's north hand, which is the same as your north (that is, right) hand, is its left hand.
181006
I cannot tell you whether or not it has been done...\nBut I will never be truly "trapped" even with a mirror with a fairly high finish (aka 1-2 microns) there is still a loss every time it "bounces" off the mirror + if you do not do it in a vacuum there will be atomspheric losses as well.\nHenceforth if it is "trapped" it wouldn't stay there for long..
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.
153276
Reads the same upside down as right side up
828102
Going SIDEWAYS in the US? You mean BACKWARDS surely?
192182
It's because left and right are relative terms, while up and down refer more to absolutes.  If were facing east looking into a mirror, our right hand would be south, and our left hand north.  Referred to north and south, there is no inversion--move your "north hand" and the image's "north hand" moves; move your south hand and the images south hand moves.  The problem is that left/right is a special sort of orientation that is centered from ourselves and distinguishes from two symmetrical sides of ourselves.  You right hand looks like the reflection of you left hand, but when you look at the reflection of your left hand, that reflect is still on *your* left.  If you imagine that the image reflected is some different person, and you try to set up a left/right orientation with resepct to the person in the mirror, it will be backwards--but that's only because it is erroneous to think that the reflection of your right hand is your reflection's left hand.  It isn't; it just looks like a left hand because our bodies display left/right symmetry.  If your head looked like the mirror image of your feet, you might make the same mistake, but the body does not display any manner of top/bottom symmetry.
968857
just work backwards to find out the logic in it. That way you'll get why it works that way it did
387690
yes i have a solution...\nYeah. From a mirror, you'll see its lense. Just turn off the flash. From facing 2 mirrors and positioning moblie in between, you'll see both sides.
18257
you were correct.  It appears that the howstuffworks diagram showing the bicycle mentioned in another answer is in error in that the bicycle would be upside down as shown but the tires and handlebars should not be reversed the way shown.  For example if you are looking at a nearby shrub and a distant tree, both would be upsidedown on your retina.  But the order of objects would be tree, shrub, focal point of eye, shrub image then tree image.\n\nAn experiment was conducted where people wore special glasses that inverted objects as the eye does.  After a while they learned to see correctly again and when they took the glasses off everything was inverted until they re-learned to see correctly once again.