Mirrors: why, when they are flat on a wall, can you see reflections of things not immediately parallel to the mirror?

Question

I’ve looked this up and I don’t understand the physics and need a stupid simple explanation please!

In: 2

Answer 1

If you can draw a line from your eye to the object you can see it. Mirrors bounce incoming lines back out at the same angle they hit the mirror at.

Answer 2

if you do not like the standard explanation of light rays bouncing off, think of a mirror as a window into the “mirror universe”. What you see in a window changes depending on your angle to the window.

PS this is just an analogy. There is no mirror universe, the stuff you see in the mirror is our normal universe.

Answer 3

Mirror reflect light. They are not camera that capture stuff in front of them and playback.

To see how reflection work, imagine you’re playing billiard. The ball hit a wall and bounce back. That’s the same path light ray take when it bounces upon a flat mirror.

Answer 4

If you can draw a line from your eye to the object you can see it. Mirrors bounce incoming lines back out at the same angle they hit the mirror at.

Answer 5

if you do not like the standard explanation of light rays bouncing off, think of a mirror as a window into the “mirror universe”. What you see in a window changes depending on your angle to the window.

PS this is just an analogy. There is no mirror universe, the stuff you see in the mirror is our normal universe.

Answer 6

Mirror reflect light. They are not camera that capture stuff in front of them and playback.

To see how reflection work, imagine you’re playing billiard. The ball hit a wall and bounce back. That’s the same path light ray take when it bounces upon a flat mirror.