A Wonderleaf question
How do mirrors work?
a real page from the book
Mirrors work by reflecting light in a neat, predictable way. Light from your face reaches the mirror’s smooth metal backing and bounces off at matching angles, so the pattern of light returns to your eyes. Your brain reads that returning pattern as a picture of you.
The person in the mirror seems to stand behind the glass because your brain traces the light back in straight lines. Nothing is hiding there; it is an optical illusion. That same geometry also makes writing look reversed when you face a mirror.
Wonder words
- mirror
- reflection
- angle
- illusion
Try it out
Hold a spoon, a shiny lid, and a flat mirror near your face and compare how each reflection changes.
Read the whole picture book
Watercolour scenes, straight answers, about three minutes cover to cover.
Open the picture bookKeep wondering
- How do lenses in glasses and telescopes bend light to help us see?
- How does a magnifying glass make things bigger?
- What makes a rainbow?
One more wonder: Why is space so dark?
And the next question?
Ask anything — Wonderleaf writes and illustrates a picture book for it. That's the whole idea.
Ask your own questionThe next wonder, by email
A new question goes up every Sunday evening. We email it to you Monday morning, free to read that week.
One wonder a week, nothing else, ever. Unsubscribe in one click.