Well, I thought I'd wait to see if anyone would twist my arm to post the FULL answer, but I guess I'll have to do it myself. Ouch, ouch, OUCH! Ok, ok, I'll post it if you insist……

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A New Approach to an Old Problem Part 1 of 2

The mirror reversal puzzle is not so much a matter of the science of light rays,‭ ‬optics,‭ ‬and the Physics behind mirror reflection,‭ ‬but is far more a PEOPLE thing.‭

I’d say it can best be solved by a science of human activities,‭ ‬a science that deals with how people interact with complicated or subtle things.‭ ‬The structure of‭ “‬reversedness‭” ‬in a human being’s mental imagery is far more subtle than the reversal of a photon’s trajectory.

When people want to compare any two nearly identical objects for some subtle difference there are two common strategies they can use.‭ ‬These two strategies are often useful,‭ ‬but they are also oddly contradictory.

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In one strategy,‭ ‬the two objects are lined up to face in the same direction before they are compared.‭ ‬For instance,‭ ‬if two nearly identical pens are to be compared,‭ ‬no one I know of would ever hold one pen horizontally,‭ ‬the other vertically,‭ ‬and then proceed to compare them.‭ ‬People commonly want hold them facing in the same direction for such a task.‭

When a person uses this strategy in the mirror situation they like to imagine themselves rotating about a vertical axis for a comparison with their image.‭ ‬This rotation brings them to face the same direction as their earlier image was pointing.‭ ‬This also requires them to mentally freeze their image as it was when they faced the mirror.‭ ‬When ALL this is done,‭ ‬the Left/Right reversal is obvious.‭

It can get a little complicated,‭ ‬but many people seem to have the mental circuitry to perform all this in a near subconscious flash of imagery.‭ ‬Verbalizing it is far more difficult and hardly anyone can hold on to the images long enough to do that.

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The second common human strategy for dealing with complicated situations,‭ ‬is to freeze EVERYTHING,‭ ‬avoid disturbing the scene,‭ ‬and look at the situation‭ “‬as is‭” ‬in order to perform an analysis of the subtle differences between two objects.‭ ‬This is the classic Sherlock Holmes approach to a crime scene.

In the mirror setup,‭ ‬performing this‭ “‬as is‭” ‬strategy means NOT rotating anything at all before doing the comparison between image and object,‭ ‬and the Left/Right reversal fails to show up.‭ ‬Instead,‭ ‬a Front/Back reversal is apparent in this‭ “‬as is‭” ‬comparison.

to be continued

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Hint: the HUMAN PERCEPTION of a reversal is far more complicated than the reversal of a photon's trajectory.

The riddle can be slightly altered tp show this reversal perception is not being full addressed by stating it thusly:

Why does a mirror SEEM to reverse left and right but it never seems to reverse up and down.

MikeO

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HOWEVER, on this one issue of the mirror, I have dared to think he was wrong… or at least incomplete.

There is a more complete answer to the mirror riddle.

Anyone interested?

MikeO