Exhibit: Look into Infinity

There are two mirror walls with gaps so that you can look in. The mirror walls can be swung so that they do not have to hang parallel to one another. Red light in between the mirrors comes from a set of LEDs.

Whenever you see something reflected in a mirror, the light has travelled to the mirror and back to your eye, so the object seems to be the total distance the light has travelled away from you. In the exhibit, light from the LEDs can enter your eye after one reflection, three reflections, five reflections, etc. The mirrors are 50cm apart, so that the nearest image you see will be 1 metre away from you, behind the opposite mirror. There will then be further images 2 metres, 3 metres, 4 metres, etc. away from you, stretching into the distance.

When the mirrors are parallel, the lines of LED images will be straight, like the line of cats’ eyes on a straight road. If you angle the mirrors a little, it makes the “road” seem to go round a bend, over a hill or across a valley.