All mysteries
Mystery #3Tier 2physics / light

Why are you the right way up in a flat mirror but a spoon flips you?

Look in a flat mirror and you're the right way up, life-size. Now look at the back of a shiny spoon and you bulge out, tiny. Flip the spoon to the bowl side and, gotcha, you're upside down! It's the same metal reflecting the same you. So why does the spoon turn you on your head?

A spiral pattern reflected and distorted in the curved, shiny bowl of a spoon.
Photo: Boyana.kjfg, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Your guess

What's your hunch about what it is about the curve of the spoon that flips your reflection?

There's no single magic word to type, have a go in your own words, then reveal the answer to see how close you got.

Make a guess to unlock the hints and the answer.