Part Two

The simple answer as to why a mirror image of your face looks different than your actual face is illustrated below. Here are the two halves of CJ's face, separated so you can examine them closely.

They are NOT the same! A close look at the 'details' shows some differences: The eyebrows are different sizes The ears are not identical The left and right sides of the mouth are completely different

Most people's faces are different, left from right, in hundreds of subtle ways... subtle, but not unnoticeable. Your brain is superb at recognizing patterns, particularly facial features, and even tiny differences are noticed ... differences you might not recognize even by looking at the pictures above.

Here's even more dramatic evidence that the two sides of a person's face are not the same.

This is a picture of CJ, made by taking the left side of his face and reflecting it horizontally onto the right side. In other words, you are seeing just the left side of his face; both sides are identical, or congruent left sides.

If CJ's face was perfectly symmetric, and like the left side, this is what CJ would look like.
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Alternately, here is a picture of CJ, this time made from two congruent right sides.

A completely different person!

The conclusion? Even though you think that both sides of your face are the same, they are really different in many little ways... enough that when you see a photograph of yourself, you may think it is 'strange', because you are used to looking at your mirror image ... which nobody else sees! You can tell which people have faces that are really different from left to right... they'll be the ones who always complain that their pictures never look like them! Here's another example, with a new face ...

Reflections Page 1 | Science Pages | Worsley School