In a 22 July 2008 NY Times science article, Mirrors Don’t Lie. Mislead? Oh, Yes, Natalie Angier offers us a look into how mirrors do mislead our brains. I recommend you read the entire article. For those who haven’t studied much physics or haven’t studied it for awhile and can be amazed by basic science, I encourage you to try this as an experiment yourself, as described in the article:
Imagine you are standing in front of a bathroom mirror; how big do you think the image of your face is on the surface? And what would happen to the size of that image if you were to step steadily backward, away from the glass?
People overwhelmingly give the same answers. To the first question they say, well, the outline of my face on the mirror would be pretty much the size of my face. As for the second question, that’s obvious: if I move away from the mirror, the size of my image will shrink with each step.
Both answers, it turns out, are wrong. Outline your face on a mirror, and you will find it to be exactly half the size of your real face. Step back as much as you please, and the size of that outlined oval will not change: it will remain half the size of your face (or half the size of whatever part of your body you are looking at), even as the background scene reflected in the mirror steadily changes. Importantly, this half-size rule does not apply to the image of someone else moving about the room. If you sit still by the mirror, and a friend approaches or moves away, the size of the person’s image in the mirror will grow or shrink as our innate sense says it should.
Bottom line: Seeing is believing and then again its not.
Fraternized 