Physics-like answer: There is no flipping at all. Each point on your body is reflected back from the mirror at the location where where the light from that part

Physics-like answer: There is no flipping at all. Each point on your body is reflected back from the mirror at the location where where the light from that part strikes the mirror. E.g. draw a "ray" from your left hand to the mirror. It strikes the left side of the mirror and comes back to your left hand. (And another ray comes to your eye, but ignore all but the perpendicular rays.) Linguistics-like answer: It's because we name our hands etc with directions left and right, but not our heads vs feet. If we named our hands "writer" and "puncher" we might not suffer from this riddle. EDIT: Stand in a relaxed hands at your side position. Label the top of the mirror "top," and the bottom "bottom," relative to gravity. Your head, at the "top" of your body relative to gravity, is at the top of the mirror. Now pierce your body through the belly button with an axle, and rotate your body 90 degrees. Your left hand is at the "top" of your body, relative to gravity, and so is its reflection in the mirror. No flipping. FURTHER EDIT: Label the mirror at the top with an arrow pointing up, and the word "north." Three more arrows, with east west and south. Call your left hand "west." Wave your west hand. What do you see? No flipping. YET ANOTHER EDIT: Neurologic-like answer. ... I don't know how to do this one, but I suspect there is one.