The shape of the mirror also makes a difference in our perception. In the U.S., passenger-side mirrors are convex (meaning curved slightly outward), whereas driver-side mirrors are flat.

Unless you’re in a carnival funhouse, mirrors are generally dead flat and kind of boring. Throw in some curves and things get interesting, especially when you can control the cu ...

We are also not sure when the first right outside mirror appeared, but the left outside mirror became standard in the 1960s. We do know why objects appear smaller: Convex lenses bend light.

Seiichi Sugiura, Kenji Kimura, Outside Rearview Mirror Requirements for Passenger Cars—Curvature, Size, and Location, SAE Transactions, Vol. 87, Section 2: 780230–780458 (1978), pp. 1622-1632 ...

Piece by piece According to the press release, the Rubin Observatory’s M2 is one of the largest convex mirrors ever constructed. It measures just under 13 feet (4 meters) in diameter.

Sadly, the mirror doesn’t actually look like a disco ball when you get a closer look at it, but in hindsight, that’s probably a good thing – disco ball side mirrors would be pretty distracting.