Polite Dissent

7 Responses to “ Picture Quiz ”

1. Your Obedient Serpent
   May 25th, 2005 at 9:55 pm
   

   The “Objects May Appear Farther” mirror is supposed to be on the STARBOARD side.

2. GruntDoc
   May 26th, 2005 at 12:20 am
   

   Actually, it’s “..Closer..”, and should be on the passenger side. Also, the lettering shouldn’t disappear in the window reflection, should it?

3. boolean
   May 26th, 2005 at 3:54 am
   

   “Objects in mirror may [b]seem[/b] farther than they [b]appear[/b]”

   So the car behind me might [b]seem[/b] to be six feet behind me, but it might only
   [b]appear[/b] to be five feet away?

   “Seem” and “appear” both refer to the driver’s [i]perception[/i] of an object’s location.

   The usual warning is that “Objects may appear closer than they actually [b]are[/b]”,
   warning the driver about the difference between his percetion and [i]reality.[/i]

4. amphetamine
   May 26th, 2005 at 7:08 am
   

   The phrase I know it as is “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” And to react to GruntDoc (who noticed faster than I did that the mirror is on the wrong side of the car): the lettering doesn’t disappear in the reflection on real cars because the lettering on real mirrors is black. Lettering on a mirror in white in the real world would be virtually unreadable.

5. Your Obedient Serpent
   May 26th, 2005 at 12:40 pm
   

   Okay, I just checked half-a-dozen cars out on the street, and the message on their mirrors all read “Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear”, word for word, from a mix of Fords, Nissans, Toyotas, and others.

   Semantically, “Objects Are Closer Than They Appear” means roughly the same thing as “Objects May Seem Farther Than They Appear” — “It Looks 2X Away, But It’s Really Only X”.

   The phrase “Objects In The Rear-View Mirror May APPEAR Closer Than They ARE” sounds familiar because it’s the title (and chorus) of a song from Meat Loaf’s BAT OUT OF HELL II album.

   And yes, it should be on the starboard/passenger side.

6. Scott
   May 26th, 2005 at 1:12 pm
   Official Comment

   Boolean nails the error. The real warning (however it may be phrased) is reality vs. appearance, while the Bendis/Maleev version is appearance vs. appearance, reality never enteres into it.

   Personally, I never caught the wrong side, wrong color, bad reflections errors — which is why I love posting these things because people always find things I missed.

7. Heather
   May 26th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
   

   Ha. I’m glad other people commented before me; my main answer was going to be that the steering wheel was on the wrong side, before I remembered (my brain was still asleep) that cars in America are left-hand drive!

   Cheers,
   Heather

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