Distorted Apple, Round Reflection

In the picture

1. 1The stretched red apple painted on the paper: a wide arc that only reads as an apple from the mirror’s viewpoint.
2. 2The polished cylindrical mirror: a vertical curved surface that redirects the stretched paint into a new image.
3. 3The apple reflection on the mirror: the distorted arc compressed into a round, natural-looking apple.
4. 4The brush with red-stained bristles beside the paper: the tool that made the stretched red marks.

Examples

• A sidewalk chalk drawing that looks stretched on the ground but forms a 3D shape when photographed from one spot.
• Anamorphic street art that reveals a face only when viewed from a marked place on the ground.

Quiz: Distorted Apple, Round Reflection (Age 18)

1. 1

   What must an anamorphic image depend on to look correct?

   • A single viewing position or a specific mirror shape
   • Viewing it from any angle at all
   • Keeping the original image completely undistorted
2. 2

   How are the distorted version and the clear version related?

   • They are two views of the same image
   • They are two different pictures made independently
   • The clear version is just a smaller copy of the distorted marks
3. 3

   What does the correct viewpoint or curved mirror do to the distorted shapes?

   • It replaces the distorted paint with a new image painted on the mirror
   • It makes them stay stretched and unrecognizable
   • It makes them line up into a clear, realistic image

The answers, each with its explanation, are in the app. This lesson has left the free week, so its quiz is part of the subscription.