A multiple image of a visitor at a mirror gallery

June 23: I am silver and exact./I have no preconceptions./Whatever I see I swallow immediately,/Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike/I am not cruel, only truthful.

? Mirror, Sylvia Plath

The mirror gallery at the Regional Science Centre, to be opened to the public in another three months, promises to play a cruel joke on your intelligence and your sense of reality.

Kaleidoscope, periscope, infinity mirrors, anti-gravity mirror ? you name it, the gallery has it.

But the most attractive feature will be the “Mirror Magic Gallery” ? a miniature forest diorama (a scenic painting viewed through a peephole in which changes in illumination simulate images) with a series of vertical panel of mirrors with only one entrance and one exit.

“The arrangement of mirrors is such that it will virtually create an endless series of images of the same environment. If one enters that space, he is likely to be directionless,” said R.S. Jeelani, project coordinator of the science centre at Khanapara.

“There will be a horizontal tunnel, bottomless open well, infinity mirrors, anti-gravity mirror, amazing dining table, giant kaleidoscope, periscope, and many more to enlighten all category of visitors,” Jeelani added.

“The world of mirrors shall take you to the world of your images formed by a number of mirrors placed in different angles in relation to you,” he said.

Apart from the fun of illusions, the gallery can also be educative, bringing back all the laws of reflection one had studied in school. Explains Jeelani, the mechanism of formation of images by mirror is simply governed by two natural laws, called Laws of Reflection and Laws of Light.

“The gallery shall also offer opportunity to the students to experiment on the formation of images by plane and curved mirrors, position and magnification of image in relation to the objects,” Jeelani added.

Regional Science Centre officials hope that the mirror gallery will be a great hit among the students.

The centre hopes that this year the number of visitors will go up to 1.6 lakh with the addition of facilities. It is also tying up with schools from Meghalaya to get more number of students to visit the centre.

The gallery will be ready by August end, the centre officials hopes.

Till then ? it’s mirror, mirror on the wall?