In the various videos circulating on the net, people are seen in front of one mirrorhiding an object behind a sheet of paper or a towel. The amazement shown in these videos comes from the fact that, although there is an obstacle between the object and mirror, the image is clearly visible in the mirror! But how is it possible that the mirror can also reflect something covered, which is not directly in front of it?
Clearly it is not magic, but the physical reflection. We know these laws well since schools, but these Reels deceive us precisely because they are spectacular a very interesting behavior of the light, but that in truth we have before the eyes every day.
We are visible in the mirror because we reflect the light rays
First, remember a basic concept by answering the question: why do we see the objects? It is certainly thanks to the existence of the light, And there are two types of bodies:
- the bright bodiesthat is, all those entities that emit light rays and this is why they are visible from our eye, such as the sun, lamps, fire …
- then there are i Illuminated bodiesfor example we human beings, that is, those bodies that are visible because, yes, they emit light, but it is a liarariflex! This means that, thanks to the presence of bright bodies, the light rays emitted by these come to hit our body which, invested by these rays, reflects them. For this reason, an object affected by a bright radius is visible: because it emanates light rays of reflected light, coming from bright bodies.
Here, according to this concept, we can think of as an entity that, if illuminated, reflect rays in all directions, and this is the reason why we rise visible from different angles.
Now, it mirror It is a surface completely reflective. This means that every luminous ray that strikes it is reflected symmetrically compared to perpendicular And, coming to our eye, we can see our reflected image thanks to the reflection of the rays that we have emanated.
The explanation of the viral King: the rays are reflected symmetrically
To understand the “magic” of the Reels who have gone viral, we start from this consideration: we in the mirror can see our whole body – our hands, belly, feet – and not only our face, because we don’t only see the rays perfectly perpendicular to the mirror, but the reflection Of all the reflected rays that are emanated by all the components of our body! For this, if we put ourselves quite close to the mirror and look down, we are able to see our feet reflected Even if they are not in front of the mirror, because from our feet light rays start which, reflecting in the mirror, arrive at our eye (as you can see in the image below).
Once this concept is understood, we revealed the mystery of the Reel: the sheet that is interposed between the protagonist of the Reel and the mirror block the perpendicular rays To it and actually the protagonist is not seen in the mirror. But the one who is next to it and is taking up the scene with the phone manages to see the image of the protagonist because there are not only perpendicular rays! But also those who are issued in the direction of the mirror with different angles And that, once reflected symmetrically compared to the perpendicular to the mirror, they arrive at our eye making the image behind the sheet visible.
Even if looking at this video it seemed to us a magic, in truth we observe this phenomenon every day, just think of the rear view mirrors: We see the machines that are on the side of our car reflected, even if they are not perfectly in front of the mirror, precisely because the rays are also reflected laterally!
