Question

Find out the letters of English alphabet or any other language known to you in which the image formed by a plane mirror appears exactly like the letter itself. Discuss your findings.

Answer 1

Hint: The question requires the knowledge of planes of symmetry. You will need a good amount of imagination to mentally think of the mirror images and creative skills to think of many examples.

Complete step-by-step answer:
To understand which kinds of alphabets will appear the same in their mirror image as well, we need to know what is a plane of symmetry.
A plane of symmetry, refers to a plane along which if you rotate an object’s image by 180 degrees either clockwise or anti clockwise, it will again produce the same object’s image.
The below image will help in understanding,

The letter U, in this image has a plane of symmetry, depicted by the dashed line. Due to this the mirror image of the letter along that plane is the same as the letter itself.
However, it doesn’t have a plane of symmetry along it’s horizontal axis. That means, if you try to see the image formed by a mirror placed on the top of the letter U, it won’t look like a replica of U.
The same case occurs, for other letters such as V, W, M and T as well. That is, for all these letters, including U, the mirror image will be an exact replica of the original letter only when the mirror image is taken with respect to its horizontal axis.
However, there are certain letters such as H and I, which will produce the exact same replica of itself even when the mirror is placed along its horizontal axis. That means, these 2 letters have 2 planes of symmetry, both along horizontal and vertical axes.
Below is an example of H offering a horizontal plane of symmetry.

Next we have the letter O offering super symmetry. This letter will produce the exact replica of itself in every mirror image along every axis and oblique axis as well.

Note: Remembering how to make mirror images will be difficult in the exams. However, if you know that certain letters will have planes of symmetry along which it will always produce mirror images will be helpful to choose right options.