-2

You are in a room with a barrier in the middle. This is not a physical barrier; it is a dividing line of 2 mirror images. When you look across the room, it appears to be a mirror because you see a mirror image of yourself and other objects in the room, but the mirror is not made of any substance. It is simply a point where anything past it is an exact mirror of all things on the other side. For example, if you were to walk forwards, you would not be able to cross the dividing line because you would walk into yourself walking forwards. If you were to try to punch your mirror image, you would punch it in the fist while they simultaneously punch you in the exact same spot, probably resulting in a broken hand for both you and your mirror image. If you were to try to push any object through the mirror line, it would collide with its mirror object and would not be able to pass. Is it possible for you or any other physical matter to cross the mirror line (without introducing "magical" phenomenons such as teleportation)?

Santiago Benoit
  • 129
  • 8
  • 3
    I suspect (but can't prove) that photons and electrons may be able to pass through due to quantum effects – Ben Aaronson Oct 09 '14 at 00:32
  • 1
    For practical purposes, let's allow photons to pass through the mirror line because otherwise, you wouldn't be able to see your mirror image. – Santiago Benoit Oct 09 '14 at 00:33
  • 4
    Photons passing through is equivalent to bouncing, due to the ants-on-a-stick principle. –  Oct 09 '14 at 00:54
  • Aha, you are right. A photon bouncing off of its mirror would be traveling at the same direction as its mirror would be if it passed through. – Santiago Benoit Oct 09 '14 at 01:06
  • 7
    Do you have a specific answer in mind? E.g. is this a puzzle or a thought experiment? – Miniman Oct 09 '14 at 04:12
  • So the question is "Is it possible for any macroscopic object to cross the line?"? – klm123 Oct 09 '14 at 09:54
  • Does the barrier extent infinitely in all directions? Left/right/up/down? If not, leave the room and walk/fly around. – Trenin Oct 09 '14 at 12:39
  • The barrier extends infinitely, and the question is if any matter can pass through. It does not need to be macroscopic – Santiago Benoit Oct 09 '14 at 16:03
  • 1
    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about physics. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Oct 13 '14 at 11:07
  • 1
    If I found this place, I would totally take a gun and start shooting at the mirror - think how awesome repeated bullet-on-bullet collisions would be. – PopularIsn'tRight Nov 06 '14 at 18:57
  • I think Physics.SE would find this question amusing. – Etheryte Nov 06 '14 at 21:05
  • Please note that the only way I am familiar with for you to tell the difference between this and a magically perfect mirror is as follows. Take a powerful battery, wires, voltemeter, and 2 known resistors. Make a circuit with the magic mirror plane. You will definitely see a difference assuming that the magic mirror is conductive to some non-zero extent. – kaine Nov 06 '14 at 21:46
  • 1
    This question appears to be off-topic because it should be migrated to worldbuilding.SE, where they specialise in the logical consequences of imaginary physical laws. – A E Dec 10 '14 at 09:53

6 Answers6

11

Basically the mirror line is a physical equivalent of an ideal wall, which can react to any force you apply to it with the same, but opposite force.
A physical object can not cross a wall, especially an ideal wall. So my answer is no.

klm123
  • 16,216
  • 8
  • 64
  • 125
7

Create a strong magnetic field at the mirror surface. North is up, south is down. Fire an electron beam at the mirror through the field. Electrons from either side will be deflected anti clockwise (as seen from above) and will miss each other, passing through the mirror.

frodoskywalker
  • 7,369
  • 1
  • 30
  • 49
  • Nice, but it does imply that either the mirroring proces is imperfect, or that you can break it by doing this. – Dennis Jaheruddin Nov 06 '14 at 12:49
  • 1
    Well, either the material on the other side of the mirror is antimatter, our physical laws do not apply, or you can use a trick like this to break the mirror effect. – frodoskywalker Nov 06 '14 at 14:39
6

A black hole (the two would collide and crash into each other making one singularity).

An electron (doesn't travel linearly so it wouldn't necessarily collide with itself).

Lots of different objects would be created from two mirrored particle accelerators colliding their payload. These created objects need not be spawned with a twin (so they would bypass the mirror).

DiscOH
  • 436
  • 2
  • 9
2

Attempt #1

Yes, a liquid or gas. It would collide with, (and pass through) it's mirror image.

Attempt #2

Light. It would that count?

Attempt #3

Another mirror, it will create infinite energy back and forth causing the mirrors to break, the walk by.

warspyking
  • 14,500
  • 10
  • 78
  • 144
  • 5
    Not necessarily- the individual atoms in the liquid or gas would have mirrors too, so they would still collide with their mirrors without being able to pass, regardless of the phase of matter they are in. – Santiago Benoit Oct 09 '14 at 00:48
  • My original thought was to put up a mirror and cause the infinite reflection. That way you're getting 'in' the mirror, but only in perspective, not physically. – Xrylite Oct 09 '14 at 17:29
  • There is no such thing as infinite reflection; it only can seem infinite. The fastest speed anything can travel, including light, is the speed of light, so there will not be infinite energy. – Santiago Benoit Oct 12 '14 at 19:51
0

If i would go to near the barrier, and raise my hand (not all the way through, just as to be vertical to my torso), then my reflection would do the same. Then if i catch my reflections hands and side step to the right, then my reflection would do the same but his right would be my left then I would enter from the right and he would do the same from the left.Side stepping in a circle whose center is the point where our hands are caught.

libathos
  • 101
  • 1
  • you can't "catch his hand". His fingers would always match with yours and thus you'd never be able to intertwine. This is actually what I had thought of too initially. – d'alar'cop Oct 20 '14 at 17:26
  • ok but still the idea of rotating (side-stepping) with the center being on the barrier it should work – libathos Oct 21 '14 at 09:55
  • 2
    But your reflection's interpretation of what "right" means would be the opposite of yours, since he was born in a society where left and right have opposite meanings. So when the two of you mutually decide to sidestep "right", you move in the same direction and collide with one another. – Kevin Nov 06 '14 at 12:59
0

It is not a physical object, but one thing that can pass through the mirror is a (perfect harmonic?) wave.

This is due to the fact that the wave that coming from 'the other side' is reflected, and as such actually continues the wave from your side.

Of course this effect goes both ways.

Dennis Jaheruddin
  • 397
  • 2
  • 10