The minimum is two additional plane mirrors, making three including the flip plane mirror. Their reflecting planes can meet at in the vertical section, as in a pentaprism. For example, in the section take the first added reflecting plane at to and the second at . The upward beam first travels diagonally forwards and upwards, then horizontally backwards towards an eye looking forwards. The two reflections together rotate directions through : the propagation direction becomes , while the screen's top direction becomes at the eye. Thus the picture remains upright vertically.
One additional plane mirror would also send into , but it would send the top direction into , making the image upside down. This proves minimality for ordinary plane mirrors. The three-reflection arrangement still reverses left and right; correcting that additionally requires a roof arrangement or another suitable image-erecting system. Vertical erection alone is what is asked here.
Figure 1.
An original vertical-section ray construction with the minimum two added plane mirrors
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Pentaprism 2026-10-24
A pentaprism redirects a beam through a right angle using two reflecting faces whose planes meet at . In the meridional section their combined action is a rotation, preserving the relevant image-top direction as the beam turns. It does not by itself perform the additional lateral reversal of a roof pentaprism; the latter has an extra reflecting face.