Why are reflections backwards?

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If you’re standing in front of a mirror and you raise your left hand, your reflection appears to raise its right hand.  That “right hand” you see in the mirror is really just a reflection of your left hand, but why does it look backward?  

Mirrors reflect light, and when light hits our eyes, our brain tells us what we are seeing.  With a flat mirror, light that bounces off the left side of our bodies is reflected on the left side of the mirror, which is then reflected back to our eyes. Everything on the left side of our bodies appears on the left side of the mirror.  The same thing happens with the right side of our bodies. Everything on our right sides appears on the right side of the mirror.  

Now, if you were to stand facing another person, that person’s right side would be in front of your left side. If you reached out with your left hand to grab the hand in front of you, you would grab the person’s right hand.  With a mirror, it’s different. If your left hand touches the mirror, it’s just touching a reflection of what is in front of it—your left hand.

Reflecting Reflections

If you want to see what you really look like, and not a flipped version of yourself, all you need is a second mirror. You can probably use the mirror in your bathroom and a handheld mirror to do this.  Hold the handheld mirror off to your side and tilt it so it reflects the first mirror.  The flipped image from the first mirror will get flipped again, and everything will appear to be normal.

If you hold the handheld mirror in front of you, facing the bathroom mirror, what do you see now? Do you see the reflection of a reflection? Can you see the reflection of a reflection of another reflection?  How many reflections can you see?