Looking in a mirror, Meeta says a mirror swaps left and right because that is just what mirrors do…
Looking in a mirror, Meeta says a mirror swaps left and right because that is just what mirrors do — turn left into right, but not top into bottom. Her brother says the story is a bit different. On this alone, is Meeta's reason surely right?
Who do you think is right? Pick one.
The answer: No — the reason is something else
Why
Meeta's describing what she truly sees — text looks backwards, your right hand seems the image's left — so 'mirrors swap left and right' feels obviously true. The catch is her REASON. A mirror doesn't single out left-and-right and leave top-and-bottom alone; that would be strange, since the mirror has no idea which way is 'sideways' for you. What it actually flips is FRONT-to-back — depth. Your nose (near the mirror) stays near, the back of your head (far) stays far, so the image faces you like someone turned around — and it's YOU who then reads that turned-around figure as left-right swapped. Test: lie sideways and look in the mirror — the 'swap' tilts with you; the mirror never chose left-right, you did by how you turned. Her reason isn't surely right: the mirror reverses front-and-back, and left-right is how we read that — not a special sideways-only trick.
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