I have a life size mirror, the reflection is wavy, what causes this?
484472
This could happen one of two ways:\n\n1) The mirror is made of another material than glass or the usual material used.\n\nOR\n\n2) The mirror has curvatures somewhere along the way creating a distorted image.\n\nHope this helps!
28167
A mirror is a surface with good specular reflection that is smooth enough to form an image. The best known example is the plane mirror. The most common use is in the home for personal grooming but mirrors are also used in scientific apparatus such as telescopes and lasers, and in industrial machinery.\n\n\nIn this diagram plane waves reflect off a parabolic mirror to form waves converging onto a focal point.In a plane mirror, a parallel beam of light changes its direction as a whole, whilst still remaining parallel; the images formed by a plane mirror are virtual images, of the same size as the original object (see mirror image). There are also parabolic concave mirrors, where a parallel beam of light becomes a convergent beam, whose rays intersect in the focus of the mirror. Finally, there are convex mirrors, where a parallel beam becomes divergent, with the apparent intersection occurring behind the mirror. Note that spherical concave and convex mirrors do not have a single focal point, as often described in high school physics text books (see spherical aberration in lens (optics) and aberration in optical systems).\n\nA beam of light reflects off a mirror at an angle of reflection that is equal to its angle of incidence. That is, if the beam of light is shining on a mirror's surface at a 30° angle from vertical, then it reflects from the point of incidence at a 30° angle from vertical in the opposite direction.
76119
Have you ever looked down the street on a hot day and see that the street and air look blurry?  The same thing is happening.  \nWhen air is heated and cooled, its angle of defraction is changed.  When the angle is changed from the city lights, sometimes the light will be angled so that it misses your eyeball.\nWhen the road is hot, the angle of defraction is changed and gives the wavy appearance.
160968
use as a mirror, when it's switched off
461739
Theoretically, yes, but practically, no.  A mirror absorbs a small percentage of the light it receives, reflecting the rest.  After many levels of reflection, the light will fade out.
967896
You see a mirror in a mirror in a mirror in a mirror ......\nThere are various gadgets using this effect. \nFor instance if you put a lightbulb between the two mirrors and look throug the one way mirror you will see (depending how parallel you've managed to put the mirrors) lots of lightbulbs disappearing into infinity. I know 'cause I've done it!
152319
Not to sound like a nerd, but since it is at an angle higher than that of your face, it reflects your light pattern (Your face) in an upside down angle. To make a long story short, its like a fun house mirror. Try tilting it at different angle and maybe you will see yourself right side up!
1065132
Its hardware problem\nIf in warranty get it replaced but if not u'll have to get it repaired. Generally this happens due to Lens problem.
1150643
It could be a double reflection.  If the image you see is in the correct orientation, than it is a daouble reflection, or reflected any even number of times.  The object is in front of you which reflects off the left window, into the right window, where you are looking.
1086802
its probably a scratch. some times you polish a mark off. but seeing as you monitor is stil working forget and learn to live with it
148010
There are many possible physical causes for the diffraction.  Eyes half shut: your eyelashes.  Driving: windshield wiper streaks (visible streaks are at right angles to wiping streaks).  Possibly cataracts or scarring from laser eye surgery.
417677
For refractors, the most common problem is chromatic aberration. In this, you get little rainbows around bright objects and a blurrier image around others. This happens because the lenses act like prisms. All refractors are subject to this, but some *very* expensive ones have it less. They fix this by using more than one type of glass.\n\nFor reflectors, the main problem is spherical aberration. This is caused by the mirror not being a perfect paraboloid. It is much easier to grind a sphere than a paraboloid, and most mirrors are first ground to a spherical shape. If the subsequent grinding isn't done right, the resulting images will be blurrier than need be. For decent images, the mirror's shape has to be within 1/4 of a wavelength of light, and for a good image it should be correct to within 1/10 of a wavelength. Considering how small the wavelength of visible light is, you can see how hard that is.
149736
A conver mirror is diverging in nature.Ligh rays incident at its extreme corners gets diverged following laws of reflection.Hence if we draw the diagram we can clearly understand that the reflected rays follow a wider path.While in case of a plane mirror the divergence is not so large.The credit to this can be given to the cuvature in convex mirror
614312
Its all to do with the reflection orf light on concave and convex mirrored surfaces.\n\nSee this web page app. half way down for a more detailed explanation.\n\nhttp://www.mic-d.com/curriculum/lightandcolor/reflection.html
1174208
There is no known cause; is appears and then diappears seemingly out of nowhere. It should NOT leave any permanent marks. I am not sure if you can get it again later in life.
99177
The images on your screen are caused by magnetic fields.  Apparently your cellphone is sending out similar fields.
792242
They are almost the same size, you are right  - the reflective image is smaller. The reason it looks bigger is because you are looking at a more or less 2-dimensional image. You have to physically look from the top to the bottom. I don't know if this is a good example, but think of a hockey goalie protecting his goal. The further out he moves, the more of the goal he covers. He looks like a giant to the shooter because he has to move his head to see from his head to his feet. \nHere's one for you - how large vertically does a mirror have to be in order to see your total reflection? It doesn't matter how far away it is?