Which of the answer figures is the exact mirror image of the given problem…
2020
Which of the answer figures is the exact mirror image of the given problem figure when the mirror is held at the right side?
zEBRA205s
Attempted by 11 students.
Show answer & explanation
Concept: When a plane mirror is held vertically at the right side of a figure, the reflection is a full left-right flip of the whole image: the horizontal order of the elements reverses end-to-end, and every individual element is redrawn as its own mirror-image shape. A left-right symmetric character (such as A or 0) looks unchanged after reflection, while an asymmetric character (such as Z, E, B, R, 2, 5, S, or a lowercase s) looks like its own backwards silhouette.
Application: Applying this to the problem figure zEBRA205s (9 characters: lowercase z, uppercase EBRA205, lowercase s):
Reverse the character order end-to-end: the reflected figure must present the sequence
s, 5, 0, 2, A, R, B, E, zfrom left to right.Redraw every one of those characters as its own mirror-image glyph rather than its normal upright form — this matters most for the asymmetric characters, especially the digit
5, the letterE, and the lowercases.A reliable check for any candidate answer figure: reflect it back a second time. A genuine right-side mirror image restores
zEBRA205sexactly, character for character, on that second reflection; any character left undistorted in its normal (non-mirrored) form on the first reflection will show up as a mirrored glyph instead of the original when reflected back a second time.
Cross-check: Applying that second-reflection test to the four answer figures, only one figure restores zEBRA205s exactly — its digit 5 and lowercase s are both correctly mirrored, matching the source figure character for character. In each of the other figures, at least one character (the letter E, the digit 5, or both) is left in its normal upright form instead of its mirror form, so the second reflection produces a distorted string rather than zEBRA205s — confirming those figures are not accurate right-side mirror images.