Someone Explain How This Works

YouTube ^ | 8/29/2026 | unknown

[econjack]

I'm sure there's a simple explanation, but I don't know it.

[GingisK]

When you block the light going from your face to the mirror, you block the light that reflects straight back to you. That light is at a 90 deg angle with respect to the mirror. The image observed by people who stand beside you are seeing light that strikes the mirror at an angle. The “bounce point” is halfway between the dope holding the towel and the observer.

[GingisK]

It stuns me that people are actually this stupid.

[Danie_2023]

Lol... reminds me of Lucy and Harpo. One of em always messes up eventually.

[RCFlyer]

“Post 2 does a good job of explaining it.”

Oh, you are right. I should have looked at the video in Post 2. Straight forward. Thank you.

[GingisK]

Here is a hint for everyone: Cover up the reflection of the other observer in the mirror, then he won’t be able to see you using the mirror. The towel will not be right in front of you and you will still be able to see your own image.

[sit-rep]

you all are whacked!! there is 6 inches of mirror down the left side that isnt covered with the towel. how can anyone NOT KNOW whats happening here!!???

[Jamestown1630]

This guy is good too:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EkOFel7nRoY&pp=ygUldGhlIG1pcnJvciB0cmljayB0aGF0IGZvb2xlZCBtaWxsaW9ucw%3D%3D

[Jamestown1630]

A lot of people don’t understand how mirrors work - or how light acts.

[Keyhopper]

I thought it was Beetlejuice

[MikelTackNailer]

I was just riffing off a so-so horror movie based on the Bloody Mary Worth mirror legend,

...but there are different theories on how that began covered in this article.

The real trick is covered in the 2nd video where the hippie guy explains how light bounces off every surface geometrically like the billiard ball example someone cited, but he didn't cover how our eyes and brain "read" and process that in a way we can comprehend.

For a while I studied holography with the intention of helping perfect the medium but the concepts, logical in written form, made no sense to my mind in physical reality - at times inducing headaches so I gave it up. Rather shameful for a guy whose father was a professional magician.

[x]

Use your words!

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

The fallacy in the woman’s surprise is due to the fact she can’t see herself.

She concludes since she can’t see through the towel to the mirror’s surface, then no light is getting to the mirror’s surface to transmit her mirrored image. She is ignoring the fact that the towel is not blocking the entire surface of the mirror. She doesn’t understand the fact that light is still reflecting off her face and body, radiating toward the surface of the edge of the mirror toward the observer and his camera off to the side.

Her assertion that the mirror doesn’t know she is there on the other side of the towel, is 100% true for her own view with her own eyes. The observer filming this is not obstructed by the towel. He can see the mirror and her reflection caused by light coming off her and hitting the edge of the mirror.

This is a trick. It is just science.

The towel is not obstructing the view of the observer, only the view of the woman. His perspective is not her perspective.

As regards her “how does the mirror know I am there?” is true from the viewpoint of her own eyes. It is false from the perspective of the observer filming from off to the side where the towel is clealy not obstructing HIS VIEW.

No trick needed. Just physics.

[know.your.why]

Simple physics and mathematical computation...

Yeop. That was in the last few chapters of Physics 103 for me -Optics. Physics was my absolute favorite course in first year engineering studies. Statics/Dynamics was really fun to. The wash-out math was just ok. I disliked chemistry...but the women doing medical studies had to also take it so that made it a little more fun,

[know.your.why]

2007! All the chick needed to do was google it! Seems like a fun example of liberal hysteria at its most basic level.

[PLMerite]

Bfl

[know.your.why]

I never met a mirror that I didn’t like

[Jamestown1630]

Maybe it helps to forget about images and dwell on light. Mirrors don’t ‘see’ anything; they reflect light rays that are bouncing off of things. That’s the same way that you DO see things; and where you stand relative to the mirror determines what you can see in it.

I think it’s best illustrated in post no. 2, when the hippie guy moves entirely away from the mirror but can still be seen in the mirror by the observer.

[GingisK]

A lot of people need to just observe things around them. Have a modest curiosity. Gosh, maybe even read something.

[GingisK]

I bet a kaleidoscope would make them burn witches.

[Jamestown1630]

Well, I bet some of the people who don’t ‘get’ this mirror business do ‘get’ a lot of stuff that others don’t.

Nobody knows, or even has had cause to learn, everything.