Andrew Hicks, a mathemagician at Philadelphia's Drexel University, has lately made headlines with one of those head-slappingly simple, brilliant, OMG-why-didn't-I-think-of-that sort of projects: He makes mirrors. Not the run-of-the-mill flat mirrors most of us use every day for identifying vampires, but totally unorthodox, heretical, downright blasphemous mirrors with convoluted surfaces that do tricks I didn't even know mirrors can do--like reflecting things the right way 'round! New Scientist has some nice photos, and PhysOrg the story.
American drivers use their side view mirrors wrong. You're taught to position them so you can see the side of your car in them. There's no reason you should need to look at the side of your car, unless you're afraid of car-jacking leprechauns. You can't see the front of your bumper or the back of your car, and yet you don't go around hitting things all the time.
If you use this standard positioning, you'll basically get the same, overlapping view from both your side mirror and your rearview mirror... with the exception that in the side view you also get to see if the side of your car is still there. Yep, it's just where you left it.
If you angle your side view mirrors out about 15 degrees, you have no blindspot. Watch as a car passes you. It's in your rearview mirror. Then as it nears the edge of the rearview mirror, it appears in the sideview mirror. As it reaches the edge of the sideview mirror, it's in your peripheral vision.
So this is a great idea. But an even better idea is for people in this country to start using their sideview mirrors properly.
Void your warranty, violate a user agreement, fry a circuit, blow a fuse, poke an eye out. Make: The risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things... Welcome to Make: Online!
More contributors: Mark Frauenfelder (Editor-in-Chief, MAKE magazine), Kipp Bradford (Technical Consultant/Writer), Chris Connors (Education), Diana Eng (Guest Author), Peter Horvath (Intern), Brian Jepson (O'Reilly Media), Robert Bruce Thompson (Science Room)
Behind the Scenes at MAKE and CRAFT
In January, many of the remote MAKE/CRAFT team members (myself included) convened at the Maker Media headquarters at O'Reilly Media in Sebastopol, California. Take a look behind the scenes of your favorite DIY publications as Goli Mohammadi gives us...
More...
Sign up for the Make: Newsletter
Our Make: Newsletter covers news from maker Media, has original columns, Shed deals, and more! You can also read the archives of past issues.
RSS
American drivers use their side view mirrors wrong. You're taught to position them so you can see the side of your car in them. There's no reason you should need to look at the side of your car, unless you're afraid of car-jacking leprechauns. You can't see the front of your bumper or the back of your car, and yet you don't go around hitting things all the time.
If you use this standard positioning, you'll basically get the same, overlapping view from both your side mirror and your rearview mirror... with the exception that in the side view you also get to see if the side of your car is still there. Yep, it's just where you left it.
If you angle your side view mirrors out about 15 degrees, you have no blindspot. Watch as a car passes you. It's in your rearview mirror. Then as it nears the edge of the rearview mirror, it appears in the sideview mirror. As it reaches the edge of the sideview mirror, it's in your peripheral vision.
So this is a great idea. But an even better idea is for people in this country to start using their sideview mirrors properly.
Reply to this comment