How Do Mirrors Create the Illusion of Depth?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the perception of depth when viewing reflections in a mirror, specifically how a two-dimensional surface can create the illusion of three-dimensional depth. Participants explore the underlying principles of light reflection, focusing, and visual perception.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses confusion about how a two-dimensional mirror can convey a sense of three-dimensional depth, particularly when the background appears blurred, similar to real-world viewing.
  • Another participant clarifies that the image in the mirror is not on its surface and explains the need for the eyes to focus on the distance from the eye to the object, rather than just the distance to the mirror.
  • A different participant elaborates that while the light reflects from a two-dimensional surface, the rays diverge, creating an image that appears to come from behind the mirror, corresponding to the object's position in front of it.
  • A participant acknowledges understanding some aspects of light reflection and focusing but still struggles with the concept of focusing through the mirror, indicating a need for further exploration of visual perception.
  • Another participant reiterates the importance of focusing on every point of light, suggesting a deeper understanding of eye optics is necessary.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express varying levels of understanding regarding the mechanics of reflection and focusing, with no consensus reached on the complete explanation of the phenomenon. Some participants provide clarifications while others remain uncertain about specific aspects of focusing through a mirror.

Contextual Notes

Participants mention the need for diagrams and further reading to fully grasp the concepts discussed, indicating potential limitations in their current understanding of optics and visual perception.

AL 321
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Hello all.
First off, i would like to apologize for having to ask this question on a physics forum. As you will soon see, i know next to nothing about physics, but this is a question that's been troubling me for years, and I've never found an answer to it. So hopefully one of you good people can give me a quick answer, and i'll leave you to do your thing!
Sorry if i picked the wrong forum.

So hear goes...

It's my understanding that when i look into a mirror, I'm having light reflected to me from a 2-dimensional surface. Yet, when i look at myself in the mirror, the background gets blurred and out of focus, just like it does when i look at objects in the real world. I look at the background and i become out of focus and blurred.

What's going on here? How does a 2-dimensional image have 3-dimensional depth?

I don't consider myself a stupid person, but this really does baffle me. So yes, i know absolutely nothing about physics. Laugh or don't laugh, help or don't help, but it's a question i had to ask. Thanks to anyone who can answer this for me.
 
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A mirror is not a tv-screen. The picture in the mirror in not on the mirror's surface. When your eyes focus on things in the mirror, they don't adjust to the distance eye<->mirror but the distance eye<->mirror + mirror<->object. To understand why it is so, you need to understand how seeing, focusing and reflection works. Draw some diagrams then.
 
The light does reflect from a two dimensional surface but the reflected rays diverge and you see each image point not at the point on the object where the rays actually come from but at the point where they seem to come from this being as far behind the mirror as the object is in front of the mirror.
 
Thanks guys. Appreciated.

I do realize that the light comes off the mirror at different angles, relatave to the source, and even realized that we have to focus through the mirror, rather than on it. Though i still can't get my head around why we are able to focus through it. I would've thought a point of light has to get to a point in my eye, regardless of it's angle, but it seems I'm looking at this all wrong.
Looks like my issue is with the focusing side of things. So reading up on that will be my next task when i got some free time. Don't worry, i won't be bugging you guys with that! I'm actually a musician, so it isn't exactly high on my priority list.

Well thanks again. You were both a help.
 

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