Overview
A mirror is a reflective surface that light does not pass through, but bounces off of and this produces an image. Mirrors are made by putting a thin layer of silver nitrate or aluminium behind a flat piece of glass.
When you place an object in front of a mirror, you see the same object in the mirror. This image that appears to be behind the mirror is called the image. The object is the source of the incident rays, and the image is formed by the reflected rays. An image formed by reflection may be real or virtual. A real image occurs when light rays actually intersect at the image, and is inverted, or upside down. A virtual image occurs when light rays do not actually meet at the image. Instead, you "see" the image because your eye projects light rays backward. A virtual image is right side up (upright).
This section will cover spherical mirrors. Spherical mirrors can be either concave or convex. The center of curvature is the point at the center of the sphere and describes how big the sphere is. These concepts are shown in .
Spherical Mirrors
This figure shows the difference between a concave and convex mirror.
Concave Mirrors
In a concave mirror, the principal axis is a line that is perpendicular to the center of the mirror. The easiest way to visualize what a image will look like in this type of mirror is a ray diagram. Before that can be done, the focal point must first be defined. This point is half way between the mirror and the center of curvature on the principal axis. The distance to the focal point from the mirror is called the focal length. We can see from the figure that this focal length is also equal to half of the radius of the curvature. shows the ray diagram of a concave mirror.
Concave Ray Diagram
This is a ray diagram of a concave mirror. The steps taken to draw are the same as those in a plane mirror.
A summary of the properties of concave mirrors is shown below:
- converging
- real image
- inverted
- image in front of mirror
Convex Mirrors
In convex mirrors, the principal axis is the same as in a plane or concave mirror, perpendicular to the center of the mirror. In this case, the focal point is behind the mirror. A convex mirror has a negative focal length because of this. The focal point is the same distance from the mirror as in a concave mirror. This is shown in .
Convex Mirror Ray Diagram
A convex mirror with three rays drawn to locate the image. Each incident ray is reflected according to the Law of Reflection. The reflected rays diverge. If the reflected rays are extended behind the mirror, then their intersection gives the location of the image behind the mirror. For a convex mirror, the image is virtual and upright.
A summary of the properties of convex mirrors is shown below:
- diverging
- virtual image
- upright
- image behind mirror