Mirrored Room

[Zacs-Master]

In a room where the walls floor and ceiling are mirrored, what would the reflection be of?

[jim360]

"at first" it would be a reflection in each mirror of whatever was in the room. And then it would be a reflection of that reflection. And a reflection of a reflection of a reflection... and so on. If the mirrors were perfectly and perfectly reflective then the reflections would continue infinitely.

In practice (eg in some lifts), the reflections continue about 50/100 deep (it's not the easiest thing in the world to count) before fading away and curving off. I think the curving is associated with the fact that you can't actually look straight at one mirror and see a reflection pass through your head, rather than imperfections in the alignment of the mirror.

[bhg481]

If all the walls, floor and ceiling were mirrored there would be no light source in the room, so nothing.

[Retrochic]

If there were no windows and no artificial light source it would be darkness

[Zacs-Master]

Correct bhg. ;-)

[jim360]

Yes, but I'm assuming that there's a light source. Obviously if there's no light then there's no reflection. But then that isn't a science question really.

[jim360]

eg

http://digitalcomposting.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/2011_12_01_112157.jpg

[Baldric]

A suggestion here

http://www.quora.com/If-there-was-a-room-with-nothing-in-it-and-the-floor-ceiling-and-walls-were-all-mirrors-what-would-it-look-like-in-the-mirrors

[Zacs-Master]

LOL Jim. I once took a fuse out of the plug of a video recorder before a lesson at school as a practical joke. The science teacher had the back off the TV and the case off the recorder before I suggested he should check the plug.

[bhg481]

What a cruel person you are, Zacs.

[Zacs-Master]

Just making a point.

[Mosaic]

The devil. Ths was what my mum said would happen if you messed with mirrors. So it must be true.

[TonyV]

Zacs good one, my brother in law was a county maths adviser, and when one particular teacher was talking about how she could not understand why pupils found it so difficult to grasp metric units.
He asked how efficient their cars was, reply was in mpg, " what's that in Km/l "he asked - silent room

[SirOracle]

Can anyone explain to me why it is that if I stand in front of a mirror my right side becomes my left side.........but my head doesn't become my feet ?

[TonyV]

Sir stand in front of mirror and touch right hand side of face with right hand - that's not transposed?

[jim360]

It's because a single mirror only reflects in a single direction. In fact I don't think it's even reflecting left to right, so much as it is front to back (which has the effect of making your right-hand side appear to be your left-hand side). A mirror aligned so that the side runs from your nose to between your feet would reflect left-right, and if the side is running along your waist then it would reflect top-bottom, but at any rate a single mirror only flips one direction.

[SirOracle]

Tony If I do as you say my right hand is shown as my left hand in the mirror.

[vascop]

The mirror doesn't flip anything, otherwise it would do so in all directions. When you hold up a word to the mirror and you see it backwards in the mirror, it's because you have presented it backwards to the mirror.

[Old_Geezer]

Left and right are defined with respect to the observer. Consequently if looking in a mirror and you raise your left hand the image in the mirror also raises the hand to your left. Thus no inversion. The image doesn't observe so can not claim to have raised right nor left.