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The first 2 sentences of the article, literally: "Mirror image is a tricky thing, but it's pretty clear when you look at words in a reflection, that mirrors fl
by throwaway738 6y ago
The first 2 sentences of the article, literally:
"Mirror image is a tricky thing, but it's pretty clear when you look at words in a reflection, that mirrors flip things horizontally rather than vertically. Or, at least it seems that that's the case."
Majority of HN comments:
"A mirror doesn't flip anything"
The "At least it seems that's the case" clearly suggests that there isn't an actual flip. But ask a regular person whether a mirror flips that is what they will say. The article addresses both the common wisdom and the actual science.
- tgb 6y agoAbsolutely, this is a pretty solid explanation and HN (and similar places) always have the bizarre take on explaining of paradoxes to shout "It's not a paradox!" Paradoxes are about appearing, at first thought, to be impossible, not it being literally impossible. In this case, it's the two observations: 1) A mirror is rotationally symmetric so should treat left/right the same as up/down. 2) A piece of paper with writing held up to a mirror reads right-to-left instead of left-to-right. But it does not read bottom-to-top. This asks for an explanation - one that the article gives. Why do so many here feel the need to say that since this has an explanation, it is not a paradox? Outside of fiction, every paradox has an explanation and, moreover, we're discussing an article that gives that explanation. But: a mirror does flip something, it flips in-and-out. Mirror images are not the same.
- plorkyeran 6y agoThe (perhaps overly) charitable take on "It's not a paradox!" responses is that it's something which didn't appear impossible or weird to that responder, and the article failed to make the case for why there's even something that needs an explanation.
- tedunangst 6y agoI'm curious to know what percentage of commenters who know exactly how mirrors work can perform simple tasks like assembling a puzzle with the same speed only looking through a mirror.
- kroltan 6y agoI don't think that would prove anything at all, since knowing how something works doesn't mean you can use it in place of your usual behaviour. You also have to unlearn manipualting things in non-mirror space. Smarter Every Day actually has a video demonstrating a similar thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0
- kortilla 6y agoI know how a blindfold works and I can’t assemble a puzzle with a blindfold on. Is that curious?
- bigbubba 6y ago> Paradoxes are about appearing, at first thought, to be impossible, not it being literally impossible. That's not true, or at least it's not the whole truth. Real paradoxes do exist: A barber shaves everyone who doesn't shave themselves, who shaves the barber? So if true paradoxes do exist, it seems fair to call out alleged paradoxes for not truly being paradoxes.
- prower 6y ago> Real paradoxes do exist: A barber shaves everyone who doesn't shave themselves, who shaves the barber? I'm clearly missing something but how is that a paradox?
- crowbahr 6y agoBetter paradox: This statement is false.
- justincredible 6y ago/s/better/simpler/
- bigbubba 6y agoIf the barber doesn't shave himself, then he must shave himself because he shaves everyone who doesn't shave themselves. But he only shaves those that don't shave themselves, so he cannot shave himself.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber_paradox
- sumtechguy 6y agoOr there is a second barber and they shave each other? If there is only one barber then it is a paradox.
- bigbubba 6y agoThere is only one barber and he's not bald or otherwise excluded from the 'everybody' in "he shaves everybody who doesn't shave themselves." It's not a lateral thinking problem, or a matter of thinking outside the box. The scenario described is simply impossible. Everybody, including the barber, is either shaved by the barber or [XOR] shaves themselves, which is impossible in the case of the barber. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_paradox
- eterm 6y agoRight, the mirror doesn't actually flip. It's just we think about turning around to try to "match" what we see. And humans are more left-right symmetric than up-down symettric. If we try to do a headstand to match the image in the mirror then it actually "mirrors" it top/down instead of left/right. Another example: looking at writing in the mirror, we've actually turned it around to point at the mirror. If we flip it over to point it at the mirror instead then again it'll appear upside down in the mirror instead of left/right flipped. Edit: I should have read the article, because indeed this is exactly what it explains.
- hombre_fatal 6y agoI think people here just have an aversion to (some* ) cutesy explanations of things that just confuse things. The article itself concludes with: "The reality is that the mirror isn't flipping things horizontally or vertically at all" and you wonder what mental model it thought it was explaining in the first place. * We never tire of cutesy useless explanations of monads though.
- jrochkind1 6y agoEh, what percentage of the commenters do you think actually read the article; what % watched the video? Some are just commenting from the title alone.
- ziml77 6y agoI'd guess that more than just some commenting didn't look at the article. There's complaints in the comments that only make sense if you ignore that there's an article at all. But despite Physics Girl's video embedded in there being much better than the text, I can't fault anyone for not watching it. There are many situations where you can read through something, but can't watch a video.
- jrochkind1 6y agoI too generally prefer not to spend time on videos, although I was interested in this one so watched it. However, nobody is requiring you to comment critically on something you haven't actually watched, heh.
- war1025 6y ago> We never tire of cutesy useless explanations of monads though. I haven't seen anything about monads for going on maybe five years now. It seems that trend has come and gone.
- nothis 6y agoTech people faced with a perception/biology/social issue in a nutshell. It matters that it feels weird, that's the whole point. "Flip" is a human word, it's not a mathematical definition.
- EForEndeavour 6y ago> "Flip" is a human word, it's not a mathematical definition. Why not both? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_(mathematics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_(mathematics)
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Wowfunhappy 6y agoIt's likely that a lot of those commenters only read the title, and not even the beginning of the article. I'm not accusing anyone in particular†, I just think it's worth acknowledging in terms of understanding how HN functions. † Except myself—I do it sometimes!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jwatte 6y agoMost HN commenters are wrong. A mirror DOES flip one coordinate; the coordinate that is orthogonal to the plane of the mirror. That's what makes it a mirror, and not a window.