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Why is it that if I stand close and look

into a mirror on the wall, I can see my
feet if I look down into the mirror?

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The reason you can see your feet when you

stand close to and look into a mirror on the wall
Continue reading
is due to the way mirrors re

Bill Otto
Studied Physics & Chemistry at The University of
Alabama in Huntsville (Graduated 1976) · Author has
7.8K answers and 57.5M answer views · 6y

A full length mirror only needs to be half as tall as you

are.

Any vertical mirror which is at a height halfway between

the height of your eyes and the height of your feet will
allow you to see your feet, assuming that you are
standing vertically.

As an example, suppose you are standing close to the

mirror and want to look down at your feet. As you can
see, as long as the mirror comes down as far as your
hands, you will see your feet.

Now suppose you stand farther away from the mirror.

The same length of mirror will allow you to see your
feet. It does not matter how close you stand to the
mirror.

You can “cheat” and use a shorter mirror if you put the
mirror very close to your eye. In this case, since your
feet are much farther away from the mirror than your
eye, you can see them even if the mirror is very short,
as in the next figure.

In all of the cases, the angle of incidence is equal to the

angle of reflection from the mirror.
6.8K views · View upvotes · View 1 share

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This is due to how light is reflected. Light entering at a

wide angle will reflect at a wide angle.

This causes your field of view through the mirror to

change as you move. If you move closer you can see a
wider area, if you move back you see a narrower area.

When close enough your eyes will be able to receive

light that has reflected at a wider angle.
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Ron Brown
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has 10.1K answers and 52.8M answer views · 1y

Specular reflection. And that your mirror is tilted

downward with the top farther from the wall than the
bottom.

That is, a mirror reflects light such that the angle of

reflection equals the angle of incidence. As Bill Otto
shows in his images, that requires that the bottom of
the mirror be a least half the distance between your
eyes and your feet to be able to see your feet - if the
mirror is vertical.

No matter how close you stand to such a vertical mirror

that does not extend to half the distance between your
eyes and your feet, you will not be able to see your feet
in the mirror. But if you can at any distance, you can at
every distance from such a mirror. The same is true if a
small mirror were attached to the wall at a height
somewhere below your waist (for whatever reason), you
would be able to see your feet in it, as shown in the
figure (which I realize is not a good likeness).

That said, if the mirror were tilted downward, the image

of your feet would appear above that mid-distance
position,

But if that is the case, there is a distance farther away

that would not allow specular reflection to show you
your feet.
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Geetha K
Jan 5

This is because the reflected ray from the feet falls on

the mirror, as mirror is a reflective substance and the
reflected ray is directed to observer’s eye.

Related questions (More answers below)

Are mirrors accurate in reflecting how you're

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Related What happens when you stare into the

mirror for too long?
You start to notice how much of what we consider to be
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we have of ourselves.

I used to suffer from Body Dysmorphia, which means I

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One day I took 500 micrograms of LSD and stared at

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as an Brazilian Indian (Native
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Quite simply, your face is the wrong way round.

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this because in order to view full body of your reflection

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Steve Baker
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Whyviews
Relatedanswer is it that when
· Updated 3y we look at ourselves
in the mirror it seems that left and right have
swapped places, but up and down do not seem
so?
COMMON MISTAKE: MIRRORS DO NOT SWAP LEFT
AND RIGHT.

This is going to seem like an odd answer - but the fact

is that a mirror DOES NOT swap left and right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah - you’re wanting to tell me that I’m

wrong…OK - well let’s do a couple of “thought
experiments” (or you can do them for real).

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT #1:

Let’s imagine you wear a wrist watch. Let’s all stop

calling our hands “Right” and “Left” but instead call
them “Watch-hand” and “No-watch-hand”.

Now - if you wear a watch on your right wrist - and

stand in front of a mirror - then
Continue watch-hand is on the
Reading
right side for both you AND yo
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Aditya Nanda
Ph.D student in Controls at SUNY, Buffalo, · Author has
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Why is it that as long as you can see

Related
someone in the mirror, they can see you too?
Originally Answered: Why is it that, as long as you can see
someone in the mirror, they can see you too?

I think your phrasing is slightly incorrect. They can see

us only if we can see their eyes in their reflection.

It is true because of the law of reflection - angle of

incidence equals the angle of reflection. If the reflected
and the incident ray are replaced then they retrace
each other's path.

Hence, if light from their eyes can travel to my eyes and

I can see them, then it must be true that the light from
my eyes(and face) can travel to his eyes and he/she can
see me.
21

Franklin Veaux
Professional Writer · Author has 50.1K answers and
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RelatedDo other people see you the way you see

yourself in the mirror?
No.

This is an easy question to answer yourself. Put on a T-

shirt that has writing on it. Look at yourself in the mirror.
The writing is backward. When other people see you, is
the writing backward? No.

The image you see in the mirror is inverted. Other

people see you the way you appear in a photograph,
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456 16

Zane Scheepers
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Related Why can we see ourselves in a mirror?

Light from your body, travels to the mirror and back to
our eyes. This takes a bit of time, so, what you actually
see in the mirror, is a past version of you.

You are looking at you in the past.

Here's an interesting thought. Although you are looking

at yourself in the past, if you wave, you are waving at
yourself from the future. Future you, will see you
Hope this made you smile
waving.

Bye!consciousness constantly moves towards the

Our
future. Yes, that makes us all “time traveller's”.
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