Why does a spoon show a funny face?

At dinner, a shiny spoon sits next to your plate. Pick it up and feel how cool and smooth it is. Now hold it up and peek at its shiny back. Who is that silly face looking back at you?

That face is you! But it looks squished and strange. So let's wonder together. Why does a spoon show a funny face?

Light bounces off your face, the way a ball bounces off a wall. A shiny spoon sends that light back to your eyes. So you see a picture of you. It is your reflection, which means the picture of you that a shiny thing sends back.

A bathroom mirror is flat, like a calm puddle. Light from your face bounces straight back from it. That is why your reflection in the mirror looks just like you.

A spoon is not flat at all. It has a curve, which means a round bend in its shape. That curve bends the light as it bounces back to you.

Look at the back of the spoon again. Here the curve bulges out like a little hill, and the hill fits your whole face into a small picture. So your reflection looks tiny and squeezed. Only your nose, closest to the hill, looks big.

Now turn the spoon around to the front. Here the curve dips in, like a tiny bowl for soup. What do you think your face will do in there?

It flips upside down! The bowl's curve sends the light from your hair to the bottom of the spoon. Light from your chin lands at the top. So your reflection stands on its head.

Reflection. Curve. The spoon's curve bends the light from your face, so your reflection looks funny.

Next time you peek into a spoon, give your funny reflection a sleepy smile, little one.