• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 07:28
CET 12:28
KST 20:28
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!12[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.174Evil Geniuses - shutting down20ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier5Weekly Cups (October 12-18): 5.0.17 era begins1[$1250] International ShieldBattery League92
StarCraft 2
General
How do you feel about the mass reverts in the 5.0.17 PTR? Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.17 Evil Geniuses - shutting down REPORT: StarCraft 2: Remastered In Development No more SC2 streamers on team liquid?
Tourneys
2026 KungFu Cup Announcement RSL goes to London! 2026 Offline Finals Nov 21-22 ScienceCraft (October 24-25) - Live Event Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Simple Questions/Answers [G] How to playtest arcade maps [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Mutation # 549 Endless Sparkles The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 548 Shining Bright Mutation # 547 Temple Of Terror
Brood War
General
Starcraft player cRuZa Passed away. BW General Discussion BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ Do we even care about balance? SCHNAIL now supports Remastered
Tourneys
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4 [BSL23] RO24 Group D - Sunday 21:00 CET [$1250] International ShieldBattery League [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Armies of Exigo - YesYes? General RTS Discussion Thread
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread The Chess Thread
Fan Clubs
Reynor Fan Club The Flash Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 8460 users

Mirror and its properties

Blogs > evanthebouncy~
Post a Reply
evanthebouncy!
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States12816 Posts
Last Edited: 2007-05-27 14:11:48
May 27 2007 14:07 GMT
#1
Sweet a blog! :D Now I can post w/e crazy stuff instead of in the General Forum :_)

Have you ever wondered why letter W is not inverted by a mirror yet letter B is?

Try it, write "WB" in a piece of paper, bring it to the mirror and read it in the mirror. You will notice that W is not flipped yet B is backwards. Why?

The reason:
+ Show Spoiler +

SPOILER MAZE TIME!
+ Show Spoiler +

Nope!

+ Show Spoiler +

+ Show Spoiler +

Nah not today, maybe some other time...

Mirror only changes direction that is parallel to the normal of its surface.
Let me demostrate with this picture:
[image loading]

In this image, the top arrows, which is parallel to the normal, and perpenticular to the mirror's surface, is perfectly inflected.
The bottom arrows, which is perpenticular to the normal, is not inflected at all.
You can imagine a slanted line, like \\, will be turned into /

If you hold a piece of paper parrallel to the surface of the mirror, none of the paper, nor the letter which is printed on the paper, will be parrallel to the normal vector of the mirror.
See image:
[image loading]

Think of the paper as an infinite set of vectors, each of them perpenticular to the normal.

So now we think to ourselves:
If the mirror only reflects what is parallel to the normal, and the paper hold in front of the mirror has nothing in parallel to the normal, what caused the letters to flip over?

The answer is: whatever caused the letters to flip over is NOT the mirror.

In fact, what made the letters flip over is the way we positioned the paper in front of the mirror.
The case becomes easier to understand if we use a set of transparent papers to show what happens.
See images:
[image loading]


So it is not the mirror that flipped the image, it is entirely depended on the way we flip the paper over.

Here is how you would inverted 2 kinds of letters.
[image loading]

Letter B, which is symmetrical from top to down but not from left to right, will become inverted in mirror if you flip it along a vertical axis, which will switch its left and right.
Letter W, which is symmetrical from left to right but not from up to down, will become inverted in mirror if you flip it along a horizontal axis, which will switch its up and down.



Hopefully that was an interesting brain stimulating read. Cheerios!

-Evanthebouncy



***
Life is run, it is dance, it is fast, passionate and BAM!, you dance and sing and booze while you can for now is the time and time is mine. Smile and laugh when still can for now is the time and soon you die!
FakeSteve[TPR]
Profile Blog Joined July 2003
Valhalla18444 Posts
May 27 2007 14:12 GMT
#2
uh thank you for this look into how a reflective surface works?
Moderatormy tatsu loops r fuckin nice
evanthebouncy!
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States12816 Posts
May 27 2007 14:16 GMT
#3
On May 27 2007 23:12 FakeSteve[TPR] wrote:
uh thank you for this look into how a reflective surface works?

np steve :p did you enjoy it?
+ Show Spoiler +

plz humor me and say yes
Life is run, it is dance, it is fast, passionate and BAM!, you dance and sing and booze while you can for now is the time and time is mine. Smile and laugh when still can for now is the time and soon you die!
Pressure
Profile Blog Joined October 2006
7326 Posts
May 27 2007 14:34 GMT
#4
thanks im studying mirrors in science.... hope this helps me
bioboyAT
Profile Joined July 2004
Austria1765 Posts
May 27 2007 18:33 GMT
#5
rofl u r so crazy :D <3
Milchmann | DeadVessel: Milchmann pwns. I fail.
Coagulation
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States9633 Posts
May 27 2007 19:44 GMT
#6
5'd
fanta[Rn]
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
Japan2465 Posts
May 27 2007 20:19 GMT
#7
evan please please let me spend time with you
Cpt Obvious
Profile Blog Joined November 2006
Germany3073 Posts
Last Edited: 2007-05-28 01:11:21
May 27 2007 20:59 GMT
#8
wtf fanta.

pwned
Nobody ever reads signatures of people like me, do they?
fanta[Rn]
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
Japan2465 Posts
May 27 2007 22:40 GMT
#9
yeah dude, totally forms the word eriador -.-
exclusively random individual always delivering original rape
FireBlast!
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
United Kingdom5251 Posts
May 28 2007 11:44 GMT
#10
evan <3
Victoria Concordia Crescit
MuShu
Profile Joined March 2005
United States3223 Posts
May 28 2007 15:29 GMT
#11
Cool, now write one about moose!
micronesia
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States24805 Posts
May 28 2007 16:28 GMT
#12
The images are not working.
ModeratorThere are animal crackers for people and there are people crackers for animals.
evanthebouncy!
Profile Blog Joined June 2006
United States12816 Posts
May 28 2007 17:02 GMT
#13
On May 29 2007 01:28 micronesia wrote:
The images are not working.


Works for me >_<
Life is run, it is dance, it is fast, passionate and BAM!, you dance and sing and booze while you can for now is the time and time is mine. Smile and laugh when still can for now is the time and soon you die!
micronesia
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States24805 Posts
May 28 2007 17:08 GMT
#14
On May 29 2007 02:02 evanthebouncy~ wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 29 2007 01:28 micronesia wrote:
The images are not working.


Works for me >_<


Hm, now they work. I don't think I'm going to bother trying to figure out why.
ModeratorThere are animal crackers for people and there are people crackers for animals.
azndsh
Profile Blog Joined August 2006
United States4447 Posts
June 01 2007 05:05 GMT
#15
lol wtf spoiler maze you're so silly
DaGGer
Profile Joined April 2007
Germany11 Posts
June 04 2007 19:07 GMT
#16
very nice :D
rest_less
Profile Joined January 2007
Germany142 Posts
June 04 2007 19:09 GMT
#17
nice,nice.
Hi lizard.
There is nothing more ridicoulus than "trying".
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
IntoTheTV X SOOP
20:00
Premier - Group D
SHIN vs GuMiho
Clem vs Classic
IntoTheiNu 836
WardiTV375
Rex74
CranKy Ducklings61
LiquipediaDiscussion
KCM Race Survival
19:00
Season 4 Week 3
Kim Chul Min (afreeca) 1404
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
mouzHeroMarine 372
Rex 74
Lowko58
StarCraft: Brood War
Bisu 1170
Horang2 1150
actioN 985
Jaedong 850
Shuttle 716
Stork 264
Soma 244
Snow 195
FanTaSy 179
EffOrt 173
[ Show more ]
Light 157
Larva 147
Mini 106
Mind 105
Last 90
ggaemo 79
ZerO 72
Barracks 59
Hyun 57
910 49
Mong 46
sSak 43
ToSsGirL 38
Sharp 34
Sexy 33
JYJ 31
Sea.KH 26
Free 16
yabsab 16
hero 15
Noble 14
Sacsri 11
Terrorterran 11
soO 9
Dota 2
Gorgc12904
XcaliburYe113
Counter-Strike
olofmeister849
edward19
Other Games
B2W.Neo504
crisheroes277
DeMusliM214
dupreeh168
KnowMe96
ArmadaUGS69
ZerO(Twitch)9
Organizations
Counter-Strike
PGL30866
StarCraft: Brood War
lovetv 10
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• CranKy Ducklings SOOP5
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 7
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2142
League of Legends
• Stunt719
Other Games
• WagamamaTV119
Upcoming Events
OSC
2h 32m
OSC
10h 32m
GSL
1d
Epic.LAN
1d 1h
Replay Cast
1d 11h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 22h
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
Epic.LAN
2 days
AI Arena Tournament
2 days
Yamato Cup
3 days
[ Show More ]
Map Test Tournament
3 days
WardiTV Weekly
4 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Rogue vs Classic
Patches Events
5 days
PiGosaur Cup
5 days
Kung Fu Cup
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-10-28
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
International ShieldBattery League
BSL Season 23
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026

Upcoming

IPSL Winter 2026-27
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.