Why do mirrors flip things horizontally but not vertically? | James May Q&A | Head Squeeze

[@Christian-Rankin]

I wasn't confused about this until I watched this lol

[@KevinBeal]

Can you please explain it to me? I don't get it...

[@Christian-Rankin]

Kevin Beal "Left" and "right" are based on the observer's frame of reference. Mirrors don't flip anything, only your reference frame and therefor the descriptive words used. Also, to state the obvious, they don't create a copy of things, which would make objects appear flipped but in reality would be correct?? I had to figure it out again just now so I could tell you and though that's not the most encompassing and comprehensive explanation, it seems like a good one... Hope that helps and I invite anyone to correct me if I'm wrong because I really don't know what I'm talking about lol

[@anastasiadunbar5246]

Just put a mirror on the top or on the floor. Your headaches are now gone.

[@JonatasAdoM]

That's why you can't pay that much attention. Otherwise you lose the very notion you had in the first place.

[@daffydwal]

Okay. My head is spinning. Explain as you would to Jeremy Clarkson.

[@liamscott555]

How hard can it be?

[@DrMo65]

Probably one of the worst explanations I've heard to explain 'how mirrors work'

[@MarketResearchReading114]

Did seem to want to sound confusing more than it wanted to sound straight forward, maybe its because it got the idea backwards while trying to look at it in a mirror eh.

[@SuperDi_]

A lot of people think a mirror flips left and right, but if that would be the case, your right hand would appear on the left side of the mirror, which it does not. Your right hand appears on the right side of the mirror, your left hand appears on the left, your top appears at the top and your bottom appears at the bottom of the mirror. People think a mirror flips left and right, because when you write something on a piece of paper and turn it towards the mirror, it seems like the mirror flipped it left and right, but actually *YOU* are the one responsible for the flip by flipping the paper. Whatever was written on the *left* side of the paper, flips to the *right* side when you turn the paper. The mirror is just showing/reflecting what you did.

[@pinkspiltmilk]

+Super Di Imagine reading this when you're stoned.

[@ernstmadsen5526]

+Super Di That's a much better explanation.

[@pjvenner]

+Super Di - I got it in the last minute of the video. Your second paragraph clears it up in seconds.

[@TheTomBevis]

+Super Di I think of it like driving in reverse. If you look in the mirror and the road curves left, when you turn left you follow the road. If you turn your head around and see the road turning right, if you turn the wheel right you run off the road. lol

[@SuperDi_]

dilwich123 Thank goodness **you're* not a teacher.

[@cainster]

Video too confusing, got my eyeballs caught in a ceiling fan.

[@U014B]

Ohhhh. I thought they were supposed to go in a desk fan. That explains it...

[@Dendroapsis]

Why does Tom Baker in your picture make me think of a cross between the overly attached girlfriend and the you don't say meme?

[@U014B]

The123cool321 The hand on the cheek and the curly hair are similar to Willy Wonka in his meme, and the wide-eyed gaping grin are similar to OAG.

[@gokudoge7588]

cainster is the

[@HelterMcSkelter]

Here's my version of an explanation. Why does the mirror reverse left-to-right? Answer: it doesn't! Proof: when you look in a mirror, your left side is presented on the left of the mirror. Your right side is presented on the right of the mirror. Your top half is presented on top. Your bottom half is presented on bottom. Things that are closer to the mirror plane appear closer to the mirror plane in the image, and vice versa. Everything is kept on its same side in just the same way, for all three axes. The reason we SAY you've been "reversed" is because when you look at the mirror person, you imagine your physical self standing where he/she is standing and looking back. Then you notice that features on the mirror person are flipped _compared to_ where they would be if you were physically standing in his/her apparent position. That's where the left-right distinction kicks in. Imagine that you could walk through the mirror to the position where the mirror person was standing and, then turn around. If you did that and then compared the mirror person's features to your own features, yours would be flipped left-right compared to theirs. Why left-right and not, say, top-bottom? It's because of the part where you "turned around" in the above exercise. When I told you to imagine "turning around," it is assumed that I meant "spin 180 degrees about a vertical axis." But why did we assume this? There's nothing special about the vertical axis, other than the fact that it's the one we rotate around during everyday walking and standing. When I said "walk to the position where the mirror person is, and then turn around," you could just as easily have imagined walking to that position and then doing a handstand (flipping 180 degrees around a left-right horizontal axis). That would technically constitute "turning around" by 180 degrees too! In this position, you are in the same position as the mirror person, you are both facing the mirror plane, but your feet are up in the air and your head is down by the ground. Notice that in this position, the left side of your face and the left side of the mirror person's face are on the same side! the only difference is that you are now flipped top-bottom compared to the mirror person. So the reason we say we appear flipped left-right in the mirror is because as humans, we choose to picture ourselves as if we had walked through the mirror and turned around about a vertical axis. The reason we choose the vertical axis is just because that's the axis we rotate about during normal walking. The reason for that, I suppose, is because the vertical axis is parallel to the direction of gravity (so we evolved locomotion in the plane orthogonal to gravity). Complicated, I know, but I hope this brings people some peace of mind!

[@PawelVVysocki]

Exactly! If we were in the habit of turning around an axis parallel to the ground (so as to have our own front side matching that of the image) the image itself would appear upside-down, not left to right! Just to recap what you've said, of course.

[@TaufikAkbar7]

it doesn't work like that actually. it's like if you crashed 100% face straight to the wet concrete, the 'image' of you will be reversed, right? the difference with mirror is that mirror reverse the front and back(because flat mirror will reflect exactly the same distance of the object from mirror to the projection plane behind the mirror) so we get same depth feeling as photograph. M O | M | ----------------- | W | W O and oh yeah, if the mirror is placed horizontaly, it will reverse the world vertically

[@PawelVVysocki]

The fact that it reverses the front and back is one thing (what is behind me is in front of me in the mirror). And you're right, it doesn't reverse anything else (what actually is on my left is also on the left side of the projection, what is above me is at the top of the mirror). But that we imagine it turned left to right is a purely psychological effect - I'd need to turn around a vertical axis to "stand where my reflection is". Now the thing is that choice is optional - we could as well turn around a horizontal axis. Since NEITHER is the equivalent of what the mirror does the result is either upside-down or left-to-right.

[@vwoxy1]

Another part of this is that we recognize "human" before we recognize "self," so we see the person in the mirror and assume it is someone else facing us. Thus, we assign a relative left and right to this nonexistent person before realizing it is, in fact, ourselves. However, this relative direction system is ingrained deeply enough that we are bothered by our reflection raising its "left" hand when we are raising our own right.

[@JewUnit6]

i think it has to do with being symetrical vertically and not horizonally that's why we naturally turn 180 vertically, if your face looked the same on top of your head and your chin then it would be a different arguement

[@ScoopexUs]

The transparent paper explains it, even though he rambles irrelevantly for mirth, I guess. Just write a word, face it as you would face your own face, towards the mirror. Still holding the paper facing the mirror, step up to it slowly. If the paper is "all the way" transparent, it's suddenly no surprise that you see what you see in the mirror. *Detailed explanation:* In college, I asked my Physics teacher what the actual configuration of atoms is to make reflection happen, that since atoms are mostly empty space; what it is that makes them reflect photons at all in this special way. He didn't know. The answer is that it's simply the size and regularity of how the molecules or atoms bond - along a certain reference plane - that does it. Simplified: the more the configuration is regular to a 2D plane, the more it reflects. You could say that all atoms reflect photons, just in random directions. The less random, or matte, or irregular the configuration along a flat sheet of them is, the more of them reflect, and the more reflective the material is. Reflection takes place in *one* step - directly outwards (back to the viewer). But photons can also bounce inwards or not hit the atoms at all. In the latter case the material is (close to) perfectly transparent. In the former case, if it's irregular it becomes matte and transparent (semi-transparent). If the material is regular, such as in crystals and diamonds, the photons do get through and exit at a regular angle, but one which is not outwards from the sheet, towards the viewer. In this case we get refraction instead of reflection. Some do get reflected, after *more than one step*, though, and this is what makes diamonds (or shaped pieces of glass) sparkle as you turn them. In fact, even in a mirror, photons do get through, but the ones coming back at us are coming at an angle consistent with reflection from a flat plane. So you need something that absorbs the ones not hitting the very top layer of regularly organized atoms, in order to not get scattered/diffuse reflection with the specularly reflected ones. In the case of a highly polished piece of metal (the polishing removing irregularities atop the metal sheet to let the photons hit the regular grid of metal-atoms), the *metal layer grid offsets* is what absorbs the rogue photons. In the case of a mirror, it's actually a piece of transparent glass, which lets through all photons *except* the ones happening to hit the very top smooth layer of silicon atoms. This is why you see a reflection in a normal glass window so faintly. If you turn off the light inside (i.e. on the other side of the glass from you), though, you see the reflection clearly. And mirrors, then, are made with a sheet of glass, with a black coat of paint on one side, to absorb the non-compliant photons. I applied this to graduate with a thesis on "Diffuse reflection in ray-tracing" (1990). BTW, On BBC I got a related video to this: "What causes a beer belly?". Had to lol. :)

[@PuppyVtuber]

Is this for people who are tripping?

[@AlanKey86]

In a sense mirrors DO NOT invert left and right. Richard Feynmann pointed out that a mirror only reverses forward and backwards. If you had an arror coming out of your nose pointing at the mirror, the reflection of the arrow is pointing out at of the mirror. If you had an arrow coming out one of your ears pointing to, say, the shower in your bathroom, the reflection of the arrow also points towards the shower. So a mirror only inverts forwards and backwards.

[@steffahn]

Exactly, but as a normaly stupid human you look at things from the front and do so by rotating the object in front of the mirror facing to you after you looked at it from the mirror - or you stand in between and rotate yourself. And doing so as a normally stupid human being you do this so that up keeps up and down keeps down, so by fixing the flipped front/back you get left/right flipped. Or you could indeed get only up/down flipped by rotating around a different axis.

[@Kamaroyl]

Vectors are great aren't they

[@NeilRashbrook]

Humans are just too used to mentally rotating the mirror image.

[@steffahn]

It’s not even answering the question properly. The answer is just that if you present an image to the mirror then you need to turn it so it faces not you but the mirror. And this is what you do by rotating around a vertical axis what leads to the image you get from the mirror being different in horizontal direction from what you saw of the thing before you rotated it. If you wouldn’t so intuitively experience gravity and a right up and down direction as a human and let’s pretend that if you look at for example an other human being by him facing you by being rotated to you around a horizontal axis - so if you would be used to face people upside down (and not rotated to you as usual with their left on your right and vice versa) than a mirror would present you a picture of that person with their top where you are used to see their bottom, but with left and right as you would be used then to have these directions.

[@jordanclark8188]

Easy concept, but poor explanation. This explained why mirrors reflect left and right, but didn't really explain why it doesn't flip top and bottom. Didn't go into the science, just gave examples

[@Eddygeek18]

Ok thats the first james may head squeeze video which i didnt actually understand. Well its not that i didnt understand it just wasnt explained very well. If you think it was then well done you.

[@redo348]

That was quite a poor explanation, it's simple once you work out how to think about it. If you look in a mirror left and right are not flipped. Your right hand is still on the right hand side of the mirror, the same as your feet are still at the bottom. It's actually flipped front to back. If it wasn't flipped this way the person in the image would be facing the same way you are. They would be looking away from you!

[@S74N.]

I agree it was terrible.

[@jetthill]

Your explanation was just as terrible, as well as incorrect. There is no possible way for light to be reflected from your front, into the mirror, and then flipped around where the back of you would be visible. You're understanding of flipping "front-to-back" is skewed.

[@redo348]

JettHill _There is no possible way for light to be reflected from your front, into the mirror, and then flipped around where the back of you would be visible._ Did I say there was? No! That was a hypothetical to point out how absurd it would be if the image wasn't flipped front to back.

[@BantonOrg]

redo348 Ok, so if we position a mirror at 66.1/3 degrees and another mirror respectively at 66.1/3 degrees forming a triangle with our eyesight as the third plane, what do both mirrors display as we look at them ? Right, surely it's a exact or double mirrored reflection of our face. But the vertical axis still isn't mirrored is it ? lmao. No you are right, a mirror simply reflects visible objects that have light on them, exactly as they are situated. Left is left, right is right, up is up and down is down. Also yes, what is further away is... well you know, for sale at walmart probably lol

[@redo348]

i3ant0n It's a fun experiment, I like your thinking. _But the vertical axis still isn't mirrored is it ?_ You sure? If you slant the mirrors in the vertical axis actually it is! Likewise in the side to side setup you suggest the image is flipped left to right as well as front to back.

[@Lunarri]

...I have no idea what is going on. somehow that made no sense to me.

[@Areopagus]

This is confusing and rather bad explanation abour how mirrors work...

[@StreamingSunrise]

Yeah, I'm not sure I actually learned anything from this. Ha ha.

[@brianbuckley5204]

Yeah, you kind of had to get it yourself halfway through rather than actually listening to the explanation. I suppose it's not really something that's explained by fact though, it's just a concept that you suddenly "get".

[@MichelPASTOR]

Mirrors show a projection. They do not flip anything. Not vertically, not horizontally.

[@Yathingunasekara]

Wow, this is such a concise answer, and it makes more sense than James' mumbo jumbo

[@paulntx]

Actually Michel, mirrors do flip. They flip from front to back. Take a cut out of an arrow. Point it up and the mirror shows it pointing up. Point down and the arrow points down. Point right, mirror will show right. Point it at the mirror. The mirror will show the arrow pointing back at you.

[@billybobjoe198]

This was a shit house explanation. It's because of the way light reflects off of you, to the mirror, to your eye. It's simple really.

[@PSyCHoHaMSTeRza]

This is the answer I was looking for.

[@jetthill]

No, all you did was give another mis-representation of how mirrors work. Yes, of course light reflects off of you, hits the mirror, and then back into your eyes. That concept is understood by a toddler. The original question is what comprises mirrors, structurally, that causes the light to be reflected opposite on one axis, but not the other. The truth is concave mirrors do flip images on both axis. The problem is figuring out how photons, which are subatomic, reflect against a mirror comprised of atoms that are mostly empty space. And it does it with almost 100% efficiency. Your elementary explanation helped nobody. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul.

[@kingmallow]

Actually the camera flips you both horizontally and vertically making the image look upside down, then the software in the camera rotates the image that you are viewing.

[@AlexArsu]

A better title question for this would have been "How do you make a video without awnsering the title question?". Wait...

[@neuro5547]

Vsauce should name all his videos that then.

[@mittfh]

James was starting to get onto the explanation with his talk of holding a piece of paper up to a light, but then got sidetracked. A more useful analogy would be to have someone stand in front of you, painting your portrait onto a sheet of glass. To them, everything they paint is in the correct location, but to you, observing from the other side, everything appears to be flipped. Alternatively imagine light beams heading out from you in a straight line to a surface. What's on the left side of your body will appear on the left side of the image and vice versa. However, what's on the left side of your body from your POV will be on the right side of the image's body from its POV.

[@white_shadow_123]

This will only confuse everyone who doesn't understand it. Try to think it as looking at front of the other person. When they are facing you, their right side is your left, and vice versa. The surface of the mirror is like that other person facing you. Nothing complicated there.

[@alxjones]

As other people have said, nothing is flipped. The mirror reflects the image back at us, the problem is that we designate left and right based on facing direction. No matter how you spin yourself while standing up, up and down are always the same directions, but left and right are constantly changing with respect to your facing direction. If you use east and west instead of right and left, you'll see what I mean. Things that are east of you are also east of your reflection. If you could walk straight into the mirror, you'd still have to travel east to get to the object. Even though it's on your right and your reflection's left, it is objectively east to both of you since that is independent of facing direction.

[@TheCanterlonian]

+Alexander Jones what about in front and behind?

[@dbz288]

Alex Jones So does that mean that the way we see ourselves in the mirror is the same way people see us? So the mirror is true? Or the camera? Cause when I take a selife of myself, my face looks backwards and it flips but the MIRROW isn't backwards and I like the way I look in the mirror. So does that mean that my face isn't backwards or flipped when looking at myself in the mirror? :)

[@Sorenle72]

You just made something simple into confusing...

[@Itsallgoodtogo]

My head exploded.

[@kelindel1]

O.o I had no idea people had issues with understanding how that worked.

[@tarcal87]

Care to explain why? the why never got answered in the video

[@kelindel1]

GaborBartal Light moves in a parallel line and the reflection is just the light that is bouncing off of you bouncing back off of the reflective surface of the mirror. As a result of that the light that is reflected off of your right side hits the right side of the mirror and bounces back so you see the right side of your body on what, if the image was a person, seems to be on your left. In actuality nothing is actually flipped. The only reason your image is flipped upside down in a spoon is because it is concave and the light wave at the top bounces down and the bottom bounces up, flipping the image.

[@Halemmeric2010]

This video finally made me understand why Jeremy and Richard always stop James from explaining anything fully on topgear. I thought I knew how mirrors worked ... after this >.< Im totally messed up.

[@Quicksilver_Cookie]

Mirror doesn't flip anything. It simply reflects. Your right hand is still projected and reflected on the right side of the mirror. Where does flipping comes in?

[@earlleonard]

The path of the light is flipped (along the z axis) so the image is presented front to back. That's what reflecting is.

[@thefurrybastard1964]

+MrCorvusC Exactly, and easily proven, just point at the mirror, your image will point with exactly the same hand.

[@dbz288]

Earl Leonard So does that mean that the way we see ourselves in the mirror is the same way people see us? So the mirror is true? Or the camera? Cause when I take a selife of myself, my face looks backwards and it flips but the MIRROW isn't backwards and I like the way I look in the mirror. So does that mean that my face isn't backwards or flipped when looking at myself in the mirror? :)

[@Samzz4]

Back to front, right way round and upside down with a bunch of shiggety biggety in the middle. Somewhat confused lol.

[@Myr25636]

I'm more confused than ever after watching this.

[@DisoDc]

Is it me or this explanation is very confusing?

[@mickieg1994]

im so confused right now i dont even know where to begin...

[@holleey]

in my understanding a mirror doesn't reverse anything. my right hand will show up on the right side of the mirror and my left hand on the left side of it. how would anyone expect a different result?

[@MartinWillett]

Get yourself a webcam and then you'll know.

[@Aladato]

Martin Willett Webcams are not mirrors. They only "flip" the image because it's more like someone looking at you, not a reflection, which is why your right arm will be on the left side of the screen, just like the right arm of someone in front of you looking at you will be to your left side.

[@holleey]

***** exactly, and that's the reason i don't understand why someone would need a video on "how mirrors work"... instead, a video on "how cameras work" would make more sense. after all, the camera is actually flipping the picture while the mirror is doing nothing hidden really. a mirror is just reflecting light in just the way you'd expect it to reflect light.

[@MartinWillett]

***** Webcams are designed to show other people what you look like so they don't mirror the image, but most have software which will allow you to mirror the image so you're not freaked out by seeing yourself as you really are.

[@memondca]

poorly explained ; didn't really amswer why just stated the question and kept repeating it

[@DodderingOldMan]

I'm surprised at the number of people complaining about this video. Yes, it's a simple concept and most of us probably understand it intuitively, but it's very difficult to put it into words. If you think you've found a better way to put it into words than James did, you're probably (but not definitely) wrong. Remember, just because something's clear in your head doesn't mean you can easily communicate it to someone else's head.

[@mosab643]

[Coordinates axes: z-axis (up-down), y-axis (right-left), x-axis (front-back)]. Let's say your friend is standing with his back turned towards you. You ask him to move in such a way that his front side is facing towards you. There are two ways he can do it: either turn his body around like a normal person (turn 180 deg. around the z-axis) or flip over, resulting in his legs pointing upwards (turn 180 deg. around the y-axis}. In both of the cases the objective for his front side to face towards you will be met Now If we lived in a world where the latter technique was the norm, mirrors would have flipped things vertically.

[@BelaOxmyx2000]

But the actual explanation is missing and is quite simple, but a bit challenging. A mirror is changing rotational orientation because of the front-back change. And that results either in a change of left-right OR in a change of up-down. Which one you identify to have changed (but either are somehow right and wrong) depends solely on with which alternative geometric operation you compare the mirrors result with. So, you are standing in front of a mirror and you see "the other side". You imagine (as the "alternative operation") to go to the "other side", but this would be nothing else than a rotation around a vertical axis. Then you perceive left and right having changed. BUT: You also could imagine to go to the other side by a rotation around a horizontal axis, so somehow jumping into the other side and leaving head side down behind the mirror plane, an equally justified operation. In this case the mirror would have left right and left unchanged but up and down having changed. The thing is: Rotation is geometrically different to axis (in 2D) or plane (in 3D) reflection. But you automatically compare the mirror image with the result of a vertical rotation not a horizontal.

[@quarkleptonsoup4817]

Left and right are subjective directions while up and down are absolute directions. Try rephrasing the question up/down and some other absolute reference system such as east/west. Then up is still up and east is still east. Or as is stated below the reversal is the direction forwards/backwards.

[@ron7006]

Why would anyone think a mirror would flip an image vertically? Do only Britons come up with such rubbish? Spare me, but thanks for helping the Americans seem smart.

[@Broadsmile1987]

It's a logical fallacy to say the mirror reverses only in a horizontal plane. If line of symmetry of our faces was horizontal, not diagonal, the author would think the mirror reverses in vertical plane. What actually happens is that we expect the mirror will reverse the image, and it doesn't.

[@nmeister67]

Isn't it just that "left" and "right" is a direction based upon our own individual viewpoint, Whereas "up" and "'down" is a global term that doesn't change regardless of your position or viewpoint (as long as you're on earth or equivalent). The mirror treats horizontal and vertical in the same way, we just don't perceive it that way.

[@yousorooo]

QUESTION: So you say mirrors only reverse image in the horizontal plane. What if one person looks at the mirror while another one is lying down at a 90-degree angle looking at the same mirror? Mindblown!

[@MikeBensonmichael2pointO]

If your intent was to sound intelligent while not explaining the why... Well you've succeeded, and wasted my time. I'm not a hater, and I love this channel, but this was bad.

[@storyspren]

I think I can answer it. The light goes from your left hand to a bit left from the center of the mirror (it's at an angle) and then to your eyes. So the light from your left side is still on your left side when it hits the mirror and the light from your right side is still on the right side when it hits the mirror. So you see that a mirror actually shows everything perfectly. Something that's up will stay up, something that's down will stay down, something that's on your left will stay on your left, something that's on your right will stay on your right. And we see it as "flipped" because if you have a zit on your right cheek, you know it's on your right cheek. Look into a mirror, it's on the cheek of the reflection that is to your right, so we perceive it as being on the left cheek because we're used to knowing that looking straight at someone, their left is my right, my left is their right. I hope that answered your question :)

[@ksceriath8346]

which 'why' do you need to be explained?

[@IanAtkinson555]

I love it when people like you are made to face the limitation of your intelligence, Mike; The Dunning Krugar effect sweeps in with a vengeance, doesn't it!

[@MikeBensonmichael2pointO]

Ian Atkinson I understood the why before I watched this video, but I really like this channel for the fact that they usually explain things better than I can, which always helps me explain it to others.

[@MikeBensonmichael2pointO]

Einomies Thanks for the response, but I already understood this. I was just commenting on the drawn out explanation in the video. Your explanation would make this video much more concise, but James would be denied hearing his own voice for another 3 minutes.

[@Kabitu1]

Its a product of our physique as well. When imagining what you would have to do to go to the position that your mirror image seems to be in, you imagine yourself walking around the mirror, and in the process turning around your vertical axis. Therein lies the difference between left-right and up-down. You impose it on yourself, because your body is left-right symmetric.

[@Doctorpopets]

Well, actually cameras don't work as explained. The convex lens in the camera reverses the image left to right and upside down. The difference between the convex lens and the FLAT mirror is in the type of symmetry - the former gives the point of symmetry and the latter provides a plane of symmetry.

[@dbz288]

Elija Popov So does that mean that the way we see ourselves in the mirror is the same way people see us? So the mirror is true? Or the camera? Cause when I take a selife of myself, my face looks backwards and it flips but the MIRROW isn't backwards and I like the way I look in the mirror. So does that mean that my face isn't backwards or flipped when looking at myself in the mirror? :)

[@BobofWOGGLE]

It looks flipped because it's not.

[@dbz288]

Bob Woggle So does that mean that the way we see ourselves in the mirror is the same way people see us? So the mirror is true? Or the camera? Cause when I take a selife of myself, my face looks backwards and it flips but the MIRROW isn't backwards and I like the way I look in the mirror. So does that mean that my face isn't backwards or flipped when looking at myself in the mirror? :)

[@mirceailas]

If you tilt your head 90 degrees, horizontal axis becomes vertical. So...

[@SuperDi_]

Mircea Ilas No it does not. If that was the case, the whole universe would turn 90 degrees. When you tilt your head, you are looking at the horizontal axis from another angle. When you tilt your head looking at the sea, the horizon doesn't change.

[@NYCHeavyHitz212]

To me, it was never the mirror flipping anything.

[@GaryChabbert]

Slow week at Headsqueeze

[@switzerland3696]

Making that video was a career low I think.

[@Barrenge]

Where can I get one of these thinking mirrors?

[@unclejerry486]

it's even more confusing now, thanks :P

[@Yourbedtimesong]

For a mirror, there's no such thing as horizontal or vertical. It depends on our sight axis. If you bend your neck by 90 degrees left or right, you will be flipped vertically according to a horizontal view point but still horizontally according to yours, which would now be vertical.

[@Yourbedtimesong]

And, a mirror reverses vertically if you put it, for example, below your feet and look at it.

[@marcuspayne2426]

They don't, they actually flip things front to back. Now lets see if he got it right...

[@marcuspayne2426]

+Marcus Payne I'll be damned, he did.

[@hattrickster33]

You flip. The mirror reflects. The mirror never flips.

[@javascriptsophie4958]

no the mirror just refeclts not flip

[@dbz288]

Marcus Payne So does that mean that the way we see ourselves in the mirror is the same way people see us? So the mirror is true? Or the camera? Cause when I take a selife of myself, my face looks backwards and it flips but the MIRROW isn't backwards and I like the way I look in the mirror. So does that mean that my face isn't backwards or flipped when looking at myself in the mirror? :)

[@Royaleah]

I didn't even think that anyone questioned why mirrors are like they are. Mirror don't flip anything, they just reflect. What was on the left comes back on the left what is on the bottom comes back on the bottom, no flip'n flipping.

[@Aladato]

Indeed it's all about vectors. Here's how you make it flip things vertically. You put a mirror on the ground. Done. From your point of view, which is what this is all about, your face will be facing up at the ceiling, while the back of your head will be facing towards the floor.

[@Mgapcdev]

That was a horrible explanation. Just say that light reflected from the right side of your face goes straight onto the right side of the mirror, and when it's then reflected back at you, you then see the right side of your face on the right side of the mirror.

[@Minsful]

Your explaination does not answer why people see the reflection is left right only, which is the problem that this video truely addressing

[@nawedy]

True! Even I, who understands how a mirror works, didn't get this explanation!

[@mattlm64]

No his explanation makes sense because it's like looking at the front of you from behind. Since the light is making it's way as if it were from behind you, ie. coming away from you, in front of you. When another person sees you the light bouncing of the person is coming towards, not away.... Yes, it does sound confusing.

[@mattlm64]

Matthew Mitchell In other words, if other people were upside down to you, instead of flipped from you then mirrors would flip things upside down from the perspective of another person...

[@IanAtkinson555]

Things aren't really reversed left to right in a mirror, they're reversed front to back. If you lie the mirror on the ground things are reversed top to bottom.

[@radar3699]

James I don't think this was 100% factually accurate to say the least... When you see your image in a mirror you actually see an erect vertical but non-real image. Thats why a normal mirror is different from a concave one...

[@MrDannyDetail]

I was more confused after this video about how mirrors flip things horizontally, than before it but I thought about it and came up with my own explanation. If I put a perfect life-sized photo on the wall and further along the same wall a mirror, then look at each in turn, then what is happening is that the photograph me and the real me being reflected by the mirror are facing different directions, the photo me is facing out from the mirror and the real me has had to turn around, relative to the photograph me, and face in to the mirror in order to be reflected, so naturally my left and right sides have switched sides relative to where they are in the photograph version.

[@MrGoatflakes]

Wait, the human eye inverts things so they are actually presented vertically flipped to the brain. The brain being used to it doesn't care an integrates it with other senses like proprioception and balance to form a complete picture of the environment, which may not be entirely correct but which has evolved to give us a good chance of survival. Does this have something to do with the illusion that things are flipped in the mirror?

[@Nandesz00]

wow, this was my question last week.

[@MrGoatflakes]

I understand all of this, and all of the other explanations except possibly the Feynman one, but stubborn brain refuses to accept it. LOL

[@MrManBuzz]

I did not get this at all :P

[@MrROTD]

The paper is a good explaination, if you write a word backwards on paper and look through the back side of it it appears the right way around, the mirror doesnt really "flip" the image it just appears that way, theres no light beams crossing like in a lens. If you look in a spoon the image is reversed top to bottom but shows your face as it really appears left to right.

[@Tacoman2341]

At least until concave mirrors get involved anyways...or was it convex...I cannot remember

[@175myles]

You forgot to mention "This is why the word POLICE is written backwards on the bonnet of Police vehicles.".

[@TimpBizkit]

When people turn to face each other, they rotate in the horizontal plane, thus they see things in the horizontal plane as inverted, but the vertical plane does not. If people could hang upside down like Spiderman, then they'd see themselves "right way up" in the mirror from their point of view, whereas others would see them upside down.

[@MrKDilkington0]

My theory is that mirrors are actually portals to another dimension which mirrors everything we do in this dimension.

[@rokurtrygvason3782]

It's so simple, so why bother making a video explaining it?

[@hussainalmosawi1014]

This is a joke. Make a video about concave vs convex mirrors. Explain how the location of the focal point of light inverts an image. That would make a much more interesting video, and will teach people something that they might not have known before, not this shit (pardon my French).

[@drheadshot12]

Agreed

[@lorien544]

well at least its James May, You sodding arse

[@skun406]

Upvoted for chuckling brats.

[@letsgoBrandon204]

Thank a bunch! My head just exploded.

[@maciekomis]

i think i'm an idiot. i didnt get any of this, james.

[@boni23]

Still don't get it...I'm gonna go with magic.

[@TimFilmsCars]

James' reflection looks like it had a stroke.

[@manuelwolff_intlcomedian]

Now I'm even more confused! lol

[@sampatterson8986]

so your saying that mirror is love mirror is life

[@Milux2000]

I have a question: Is it true that glass can break because of strong sounds?

[@TheRealSkeletor]

This has already been proven.

[@zachdog6]

uhhh, I do not know what he is talking about, but it has nothing to do with why mirrors act like this. Reason? Light bounces off the mirror and back to your eyes (or bounces everywhere, including to your eyes) exactly the way it came at it. You present the paper to the mirror in that way, so it comes back in the same way, which appears flipped. Curved mirrors, because they bounce the light in different ways depending on distance and way its curved, can do both, or just vertically. Source: high school physics

[@yousorooo]

Zachary Karamanlis You didn't explain anything.

[@TheHuesSciTech]

At no point does you ostensible "explanation" explain why we *feel* like the person in the mirror seems reversed. We raise our left hand, the reflection raises his right hand...

[@muhilan8540]

I still don't understand.

[@Tzadeck]

Muhilan Selvaa Light goes in straight lines. Just imagine tons of straight lines going across from your body to the mirror.

[@dracovenit9549]

WHAAAAT?! Mirrors don't reverse time?!

[@illustriouschin]

Pretty sad seeing a bigshot celebrity blatently ripping off the youtuber VSauce.

[@TheMurderCircus]

That's like saying every video game commentator is just copying a more famous commentator, or every news stations is copying another news station.

[@Red-vv9lb]

Not to mention that Vsauce and James May worked together on another video: "Can Music Make You Smarter". Check it out!

[@Nichoalsziv]

not sure what you are talking about, you tubers like VSauce got their idea of delivering content like this from bigshot celebrities so in fact its wonderful to see how each content deliverer is learning form each other, altogether giving everyone what they want. So jog on butt head

[@Itsallgoodtogo]

You poor thing have no clue how the internet works do you?

[@Nichoalsziv]

oh you silly silly Man not sure you know what this beast you call internet is

[@karandusara5611]

make one on how routers work

[@FilmmakerJ]

I'm kinda surprised, James May. I figured this would have had the simple explanation that a mirror reflects light, and therefore any light or color coming towards it would bounce right back. But I suppose that doesn't really help explain the reversal thing as well as your unique explanation here. Also, I'm pretty sure some mirrors do, in fact, reverse things vertically; but it has to be one of those tiny magnifying mirrors for doing your make-up with. And if you stand about 5-7 feet away from this small mirror, your chin will show up at the top, and your forehead will show up at the bottom (I assume with your right and left sides now on their proper sides as well).

[@AdamPitas]

I had to watch this twice.

[@nihonbunka]

It does reverse things vertically. The feet I see when I look down point upwards and above my knees, whereas my feet as reflected in mirrors point down and are below my knees.

[@fishypaw]

If you write "BUM" (or any word) on a sheet of paper and hold it flat and next to a mirror, then you get the vertical flip but not the horizontal one.

[@MetaAbusser]

So, the mirror doesn't reverse the x and y axis so it doesn't reverse left and right so whats left is forwards and backwards which it reverses. Right?

[@scunts]

Thanks James.

[@PawelVVysocki]

A mirror doesn't flip anything, we just turn the page around to see it in the mirror. That's all there is to it. And we can turn it around the vertical or the horizontal axis - left to right or upside down. All there is to it.

[@mcool13thebass]

Interestingly enough, a mirror on the ceiling WILL flip images vertically.

[@JJ-rm7jw]

The "back-to-front" explanation really makes sense, because when you point at the mirror, mirror-you points back... So front-to-back is also reversed along with side-to-side.

[@TasTheWatcher]

Did this REALLY need answering? Are people really too stupid to understand/figure out what's going on?

[@darkwingppk]

Glad I'm not the only one thinking this.

[@DaleKamp]

darkwingppk I third this.

[@TheRumpusView]

I bet you don't understand the issues, it confused Newton and other notable intellectuals.

[@oafkad]

xRumpusx Once we know something we tend to forget how long we didn't know. Nostalgic arrogance.

[@oafkad]

Graphene has been on the paper of billions of people. It is one thing to discover something it is another entirely to apply it.

[@andymcl92]

A nice wee add-on I heard about this as to why writing looks like it's flipped left to right is because we actually turn the page round that way. If you flip the page over top and bottom instead, the letters read left to right properly, but are upside down BECAUSE THAT'S HOW YOU TURNED THE PAGE.

[@Minsful]

Just imagine you are sliced as sheets paralel to the mirror, then you are recombine from sheets, except reverse order. THIS is what mirror image REALLY WORK. Then someone come and see the two version of you. Since people are standing up on ground, people DEFINED your up do not change, and put your face to same direction, as all peoplo do. Then the remaining direction is left right. Bam.

[@Cephlapodninja]

I like how everyone is explaining that mirrors don't flip left to right they flip forward and backwards even though he explains that in the video

[@Borednesss]

Right.. you don't rotate mirror images, you flip them.. only makes sense it's inverting forwards and backwards

[@ClarinoI]

This is possibly the only time I've ever heard James explain something badly. Except that time he spoke about his fizzing penis root.

[@hwb92]

actually this made no sense until he mentioned the paper part for me...basically what it reflects is EXACTLY what you put into it...think of it like if you held a piece of paper in front of a mirror that was facing you...if light were to penetrate the paper in a way that it reflected what you had written which was facing you...it would reflect exactly as it is written, not flipped...when you hold the paper up FACING the mirror you essentially flipped it yourself...thus reflecting the reversed word...the reason you see a flipped face is because you are flipped around yourself...if you were to stand with your back to the mirror...and you somehow had a reflection of your front showing up (which is impossible) it would look like a photograph of you i thought of it as if i held my RIGHT hand up to the mirror (so my thumb pointed to my left...palm facing the mirror)...what is reflected is basically a left hand image (thumb also pointing to the left)...if i turned my hand around...and it somehow reflected from the front the image would be corrected...but the mirror flips anything facing it...if it was facing away it would look exact ok ONCE more because this explanation of mine is sounding wayyy more confusing than its supposed to...long story short...what i tried to explain is the reason 2 mirrors will counter-act eachother...because you CAN have your image reflected while reaching the mirror when you arent even facing the mirror..example: barber shop...when they show you your head behind you its not flipped because of this principle...if you somehow curved your eyes and looked at the back of your head through one mirror...itd be reversed... yknow what just forget it i doubt that made sense to anyone but me...honestly though i swear it makes perfect sense in my head

[@TheSpruta]

The mirror doesn't reverse anything. Everything to your left is on the left in the mirror. Everything to your right is to the right in the mirror. The only difference is that you are seeing the side of objects facing away from you. So if someone is facing you their left is your right, but if you're both facing the mirror, your left is their left. (I know everybody else is giving their slightly different explanation, I couldn't resist trying mine.)

[@SecondLifeDesigner]

OK I just watched both James May explanation and VSauce's explanation of why mirrors seem to flip images horizontally and not vertically. Both made my head hurt and were very confusing. Took me a while to get it straight in my head to understand it so here is my explanation. (See Next Paragraph) A mirror doesn't actually flip anything. It simply bounces back the photons of light as they hit the mirror. So photons that hit the right side of a mirror bounce back to the right side and left side bounces back to left, top bounces back to top and bottom bounces back to bottom. Imagine standing in front of a large white wall. Behind you is a bright light. You see your shadow on the wall and stick out your right arm. The photons that are going from the light right past the edges of your right arm hit the wall and bounce back to your eye on the right side. Your shadow isn't flipped horizontally. Now you stand in front of a large mirror and stick out your right arm. Photons of light are bounding all over the place. Some are hitting the front of your arm and bouncing off hitting the mirror on the right and then bouncing back to your eye on the right just like the photons hitting the white wall and bouncing back except you are where the protons of light are coming from before they hit mirror and bounce back.