Hand held plane mirror and right angle mirror.

• E+40+15

diagram for demo

Hand held plane mirror and right angle mirror. When you are looking into a plane mirror, the image you see is 'perverted': your right ear becomes the left ear of the image. This perverted image is the same as if you made a thin translucent mask of your face and then pushed it inside-out. A right-angle mirror is made of two front-surface mirrors perpendicular to one another, with one edge touching. When you look into a right-angle mirror, you see a 'normal' image: your left ear is also the left ear of the image. Because light bounces twice to create this image, any irregularities in the symmetry of one's face are doubled in magnitude and made more noticeable. Ref.: Modern College Physics by Harvey White,6th Ed., p.479-480

Related Demos

E+40+45 Shape of Reflection depends on shape of mirror E+40+0 Arc lamp and mirror on large disk rotate showing beam angles. E+40+5 Blackboard optics: Light sources with plane and curved mirrors. E+40+10 Phantom lightbulb: Image in a plane mirror. E+40+20 Variable angle mirror assembly with candle. E+40+21 Barbershop mirrors:Parallel mirrors with light bulb. E+40+25 Retrodirective reflector: Silvered right angle prism, using laser. E+40+30 Reflections from concave and convex mirrors with lighted arrow. E+40+35 Phantom bouquet: Real image from a concave mirror. E+40+40 Clam shell mirrors: Floating coin illusion. E+40+41 Concave mirrors focus candle flame on thermopile across bench. (same as 650) E+40+42 Light the Match (same as C+65+2). E+40+44 Applet: Thin Lens (converging/diverging lens/mirrors) E+40+46 Applet: Plane Mirror E+40+48 Applet: Spherical mirror: study of stigma E+40+50 Applet: The Newton telescope E+40+52 Applet: The Cassegrain telescope