why are the side mirrors’ mirrors skewed so that “objects are closer than they appear”. the rear view mirror reflects normal. why are side mirrors like this?
Because you’re positioned far away from the mirror, the field of view would be small. A wide angle mirror shows more at the expense of a smaller image.
The mirrors that distort do so to get a larger field of view. The theory is that the distortion is an acceptable compromise.
They are convex mirrors; the shape of the surface is curved. This makes objects look smaller than they really are. They are made convex because a convex mirror can be smaller than a flat mirror (aesthetics and wind drag).
They’re slightly curved to provide a wider field of view to reduce blind spots. This makes the reflection smaller than it would appear in a flat mirror, thus appearing to be further away than they really are.
Incidentally, if you judge distance by parallax rather than by apparent size of the images, then objects in the mirror are actually further than they appear.
My old 70’s Chevy truck came with these postcard sized flat-glass side mirrors. As near as I could tell, the right-hand mirror was purely ornamental.
When they make mirrors, some of them come out with the reflections too small. They save up those mirrors and put them in the side view mirrors of cars, where the small reflection isn’t a big deal. The good mirrors, with the reflections the right size, get used in the rear view, or for your bathroom. The mirrors that come out making reflections too big get saved up for ladies compacts.
At least, that’s what I thought when I was 5.
And if they come out upside down, they put them in spoons.