Reflection and Image Formation for Convex Mirrors Lesson 3 focused on the reflection of light by concave mirrors and on the formation of images by this reflected light. In that lesson, it was shown that concave mirrors can produce both real and virtual images, depending upon the object location. In Lesson 4, we will follow a similar…
Aberration – a departure from the expected or proper course. (Webster’s Dictionary) Spherical mirrors have an aberration. There is an intrinsic defect with any mirror that takes on the shape of a sphere. This defect prohibits the mirror from focusing all the incident light from the same location on an object to a precise point. The…
Ray diagrams can be used to determine the image location, size, orientation and type of image formed ofobjects when placed at a given location in front of a concave mirror. The use of these diagrams was demonstrated earlier in Lesson 3. Ray diagrams provide useful information about object-image relationships, yet fail to provide the information in a quantitative…
Previously in Lesson 3, ray diagrams were constructed in order to determine the general location, size, orientation, and type of image formed by concave mirrors. Perhaps you noticed that there is a definite relationship between the image characteristics and the location where an object placed in front of a concave mirror. The purpose of this…
The theme of this unit has been that we see an object because light from the object travels to our eyes as we sight along a line at the object. Similarly, we see an image of an object because light from the object reflects off a mirror and travel to our eyes as we sight…
Light always reflects according to the law of reflection, regardless of whether the reflection occurs off a flat surface or a curved surface. Using reflection laws allows one to determine the image location for an object. The image location is the location where all reflected light appears to diverge from. Thus to determine this location demands…
Light always follows the law of reflection, whether the reflection occurs off a curved surface or off a flat surface. The task of determining the direction in which an incident light ray would reflect involves determining the normal to the surface at the point of incidence. For a concave mirror, the normal at the point of…
The Anatomy of a Curved Mirror Thus far in this unit, our focus has been the reflection of light off flat surfaces and the formation of images by plane mirrors. In Lessons 3 and 4 we will turn our attention to the topic of curved mirrors, and specifically curved mirrors that have a spherical shape. Such mirrors are…
Besides right angle mirror systems, there is a wealth of other multiple mirror systems that involve two or more mirrors. If two plane mirrors are placed together on one of their edges so as to form a right angle mirror system and then the angle between them is decreased, some interesting observations can be made….
Thus far we have focused on the images formed by a single plane mirror. Occasionally, there are optical systems that consist of two or more mirrors. One such system that is often found in homes is a pair of plane mirrors adjoined at right angles to each other. Such a system is called a right angle…