Mirror, mirror on the wall, who flies the best of them all?
Stand on the platform. Raise one foot and flap your arms. See, it looks like you’re flying. You aren’t really though, of course. You’re seeing one half of yourself double in the mirror.How come you can see yourself in a mirror anyway?
To understand that, you first need to know how you are able to see others. When light falls on your best friend, for example, that light reflects off in all directions. It also reflects to your eye, and that’s how you can see your friend.
You too reflect light. When that light hits the mirror, it reflects off it again, including to your eye. And that’s how you can see yourself!
Semi-transparent mirrors
In police series on the TV you sometimes see a suspect being interrogated in a room with a large mirror. What the suspect doesn’t know is that other officers are watching in the next room. They can see through the mirror!
A mirror of this kind that is reflective on one side, but which you can see through on the other side, is called a semi-transparent or one-way mirror. Would you like to see one for yourself? If so, take a look at the ‘Bottomless pit’ exhibit.
Mirrors at the fair
There’s nothing more fun than laughing at yourself in front of the distorting mirrors at the fair. Suddenly you’re much smaller, then you go really thin and after that you look as though you have a huge head. That’s because those mirrors aren’t flat like the mirrors at home. Their surface is curved: concave, convex, wavy, and so on.
A disco ball is made up of lots and lots of tiny mirrors. The light shines on the mirrors and they reflect it back to the walls and floor. This creates beautiful light patterns.