# Why am I upside down in a spoon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-upside-down-in-a-spoon/334256 "2005-12-05T22:54:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-upside-down-in-a-spoon/334256/1 "2005-12-05T22:54:33Z")
I can understand that inverted, in caved metal gives off a reflection of, well, an inverted figure (makes it upside down)…but why is this so? Whereas, when it’s bulging out, I’m right side up? To what point would my reflection turn up and around and WHY would it? What is it about the reflection that makes it upside down if it’s concave a bit? It is something with the light or mirror image itself? I’d think that a bent in mirror type thing would just show…well, a bent-in image of your face. But no…it turns you upside down. I’m also thinking of eyes. Don’t eyes do the same thing? They basically perceive things upside down into your brain, but turns it around the way you’re really seeing it? How does it do this? ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-upside-down-in-a-spoon/334256/2 "2005-12-05T23:09:28Z")
Fortunately for you, Cecil has answered this question in his column: [Why does the bowl of a spoon turn my reflection upside down?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_082.html) ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-upside-down-in-a-spoon/334256/3 "2005-12-05T23:37:59Z")
> [@Idle Thoughts](#): > > I’m also thinking of eyes. Don’t eyes do the same thing? They basically perceive things upside down into your brain, but turns it around the way you’re really seeing it? How does it do this? It’s kind of a hard thing to grasp but I don’t think that “rightside up” and “upside down” has any meaning in the brain except relative to our own orientation and I don’t think that anyone yet knows the mechanism that keeps this straight in our minds. I do know that experiments were done years ago having people wear glasses that reversed everything. After a period of time that wasn’t all that long, they adapted to the glasses and performed skill tasks acceptably. And when the glasses were removed they again had to readapt to normal vision. I don’t think that we know all that much about how the brain processes visual signals or much of anything else. Here is a cite [one experiment](http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/mar97/858984531.Ns.r.html). ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2005, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-upside-down-in-a-spoon/334256/4 "2005-12-05T23:38:07Z")
Woooo! Thank you. (I even did a search, but I guess I need to tone it up a bit :p) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2005, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-am-i-upside-down-in-a-spoon/334256/5 "2005-12-06T01:16:17Z")
I visualize you as a small shrew waking up with a hangover and taking in your surroundings…