Mirror, 2D or 3D?

[xprynx]

We say that a film or a photo is 2D because the surface of a picture or a movie screen is 2D,eventhough the photo or movie gives a 3D appearance.
Now consider a mirror image.Mirror surface is 2D but shows a real 3D image. What should be the dimensional specification of a mirror image? is it 2D or 3D?

[InfiniteNow]

It's 2D. We just interpret the incoming sensory data into 3D from our experience. Extrapolate...

[Boerseun]

I guess the mirror surface would be 2D, but the image seen would be 3D.
And the image would only be 3D, 'cause we've got two eyes. Poke one eye out, and everything would be 2D.

People make too much of 3D - the world's best camera can only see in 2D, cause it's got only one perspective. 3D is a concatenation of two individual 2D pictures in order to see a single 3D picture.

Take two mirrors, have one perpendicular to the other to form a right angle.
Position yourself so you can see your image ( at least top of head to top of shoulders. ) in the corner.

Align them to produce one image, its still 2D, but you have an image of how people
perceive you. Similier to a photograph

If you look at it long enough you'll swear your image comes away from the mirrors.

The amazing world of refraction............chendoh

[Tormod]

Originally Posted by xprynx

What should be the dimensional specification of a mirror image?

A mirror image is depending on what it mirrors. A flat mirror in 3D space will have a 2D surface. A curved mirror in 3D space will have a 3D surface. The image it shows will still be 2D.

The mirror is just reflecting electromagnetic waves. The time it takes for a light beam to reach you depends on how far away it is in the first place - therefore the mirror correctly gives an impression of 3D even if it is just a 2D image.

[Qfwfq]

A mirror image is definitely 3D and this can be established even with only one eye Boerseun.

There was a thread that discussed this matter, I found it by searching this forum for titles with the words 'mirror' and 'image'.

Seeker's Questions: Mirror and the Virtual Image

[Tormod]

Q, I don't see how that thread supports the 3D mirror image idea...what am I missing?

[Qfwfq]

I don't know if the whole entire thread supports it but I talked about parallax there and how it isn't like a photograph at all. Anyway I just thought this thread is a bit of a dupe.

[Boerseun]

I think we're getting confused between objects and images. A mirror's surface would be 2D, seeing as it's a flat plane. Twisted into a funhouse mirror, like Tormod said, would of course make it 3D. The image, however, would be 3D.

Interesting thing I read about a couple of years ago, dunno if it's true, though:

Any n-dimensional image can be represented on an (n-1)-dimensional medium.
For instance, a 2D medium (paper) can be used to show a 3D object (an isometric drawing). And a 3D medium (television) can be used to show 4D stuff. (A TV is 3D, not with the normal x,y and z axis giving it spatial depth, but x,y and time - seeing as there's motion. The z-axis is the illusory one, alluding to a higher dimension...)

And then, if this is true, if we had a true 4D medium, we should be able to picture a 5th dimension. A 4D medium, having x,y,z and time, would, probably, be a holograph. What the 5th dimension would look like, is anybody's guess, but should be viewable with a holographical projector.
And not viewable as the actual thing, but represented as an isometric drawing would illustrate the third dimension. And once we figure that out, and can figure out, somehow, how to build a 5D medium, heck - we can view representations of the 6th dimension! And so on...

I don't know wether the above is true, though - I don't know how you're going to represent a 2D image in a 1D medium...

Interesting...

[cwes99_03]

Entirely true. In fact it goes deeper than that. I created a 4-d and a 5-d lattice of resistors on a 2-d circuit board (the type you use in a beginners electronics lab) I'll have to dig and find the pictures. I once had them posted on my geocities site, but that has long since been torn down.