Question

While getting ready for work one morning I encountered something I can't figure out.

I wear glasses and without them objects are blurry unless I get very close, within a few inches. I always take my glasses off when I blow dry my hair in the morning. While standing in front of the mirror in my bathroom I can see a reflection of the tv screen in the bedroom. It is blurry when my glasses are off and much clearer when I put my glasses on. One morning I was interested in a show on tv whilst I was drying my hair so I figured I could watch what was going on if i put my face very close to the mirror while I dried my hair. I tried but no matter how close I got to the mirror the reflected image of the tv stayed blurry. I was close enough to where I normally can see an object clearly without my glasses. I can't figure out why the reflection remained blurry despite my closeness to the mirror. Why would that be?

Answer 1

In answer to your question, you have to focus a camera or your eyes because as your light leaves an object it spreads out but to get a good image, the lenses in your eye have to bend all the light from one point in the object onto one point on the retina in the back of your eye. If you're close to an object, light is spreading out more quickly so the light needs more bending to produce a sharp image and come into focus than if you're far away. The eye adjusts to these distances by changing the shape of the lens - short and long sightedness occurs when the eye is less able to accommodate these changes.

Light reflecting from a mirror gives the impression that the object is behind the mirror and you get this impression because the light having reflected from the mirror is moving exactly as if it were coming from an object behind the mirror. This is not just true of the direction of the light is travelling, but it