Question

Respond to the following:

In your own words, describe reflections at plane mirrors.

In your own words, describe reflections at concave and convex mirrors.

In your own words, refraction at thin lenses.

Answer 1

In plane mirrors the reflection produces a virtual image. The size of the image is same as the object and the distance of the image from the mirror is same as the distance of the object from mirror. The produced image will be erect but laterly inverted ( mirror image).

The angle of incidence of the light beam to a plane mirror will be equal to angle of reflection.

The reflection from a concave mirror produces an inverted image. The image produced by the concave mirror can be both real and virtual. All the light falling in a concave mirror from infinity ( or parallel to the axis of mirror) gets pointed towards a single point called focal point.

The image produced will be real and we can project the image to a screen. However a concave mirror produces virtual and magnified images if the object is very close to the mirror ( between focal point and mirror)

The angle of incidence and angle of reflection are same in the centre point of the mirror(pole of mirror)

The convex mirror always produce virtual and small images . The images so cannot be projected on screens. It will show erect images. The image will be smaller and so a convex mirror can produce images of large areas and is used as rear view mirrors of vehicles.

The angle of reflection and angle of incidence are same in the pole of convex mirror. The light falling parallel to the principal axis of the mirror gets reflected as it emerges from the focal point of the convex mirror.

There are 2 type of thin lenses, convex and concave

The concave lens refracts light rays away from the axis and the convex lens diverges the light rays to its principal axis

Convex lens converges light rays parallel to principal axis to its focal point and produce a real and inverted image.

The concave lens always produce a virtual image which is small . The image will be erect.

(Please upvote if helpful)