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Short-sighted reflection: why do distant objects appear blurry in mirrors when the mirror itself is in clear sight?

I wear glasses to correct my long distance vision.  Without them anything more than a metre of so away is blurry.  I can see objects close to me clearly without my glasses. 

If I hold a mirror I can see the reflection of close objects (such as my face) clearly.  The reflection of distant objects is blurry. 

Why is this so?  To my way of thinking, I am focusing on the mirror which is within the range I see objects clearly.
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  • Asked by sclar013
  • on 2010-02-15 22:05:43
  • Member status
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Categories: Human Body.

Tags: glasses, Vision.

 

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 MikeAdams#367 says:

What you are looking at is a virtual image of the object, which will appear to be as far behind the mirror as it actually is in front. As a result the image will appear blurry to you, just as much as if stood at the mirror, turned around and looked at the object. 

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 (1 vote) average rating:5

Tags: glasses, Vision.

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posted on 2010-02-22 18:23:05 | Report abuse

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