The Mirror Illusion
The psychological and physical truth about how mirrors actually work, and why you've never seen your real face.
About this video
The psychological and physical truth about how mirrors actually work, and why you've never seen your real face.
Full transcript of The Mirror Illusion
You’ve been lied to about mirrors your entire life. They do not flip things left to right. Think about it. If you raise your right hand, your reflection raises the exact same hand. So why doesn't it flip top to bottom? Why doesn't your head swap with your feet? The truth is, mirrors don’t flip left and right at all. They flip front and back. Imagine a rubber glove being pulled completely inside out. That is what the mirror is doing to your reflection. It pushes your 3D image straight through a 2D plane. Your nose is pointing back at you because it was pushed back the furthest. But here is the unsettling part. Because of this front-to-back flip, the face you see in the mirror every single morning... ...is mathematically impossible for anyone else to ever see. You are the only person on earth who knows that version of you. To the rest of the world, you are a complete stranger.