system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If you have bad eyesight, why are far objects in mirrors still blurry despite the mirror being close?
gpt
The 'optical distance' has not changed. The blurriness, to ELI5, is based on how much the light has spread out since it started. The farther it travels, the more it spreads out.

The mirror does not cause it to scatter anew - if it did it would appear white instead of reflective. It retains the original amount of spreading out, and so the light has effectively just continued to travel.