Your mirror never actually swaps left and right. 🪞 . . . A flat mirror reverses the axis running toward and away from its surface—not the 2 horizontal directions. The confusion appears when your brain imagines rotating a person 180 degrees to face you. Raise your right hand and its image remains on the mirror’s right side; the mental flip creates the trick.
Source
Scientific American, 2014, 'Why Do Mirrors Reverse Left and Right but Not Up and Down?'
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