Question

A small ball is held at a point—A, B, or C—in front of a plane mirror, as shown in (Figure 2) . Rank points A, B, and C according to the distance between the actual ball and the image of the ball, from greatest to smallest. If any two ball locations produce the same distance between the ball and its image, overlap the location points.

Answer 1

The ball at \(\mathbf{A}\) and \(\mathbf{B}\) have the same distance, and the ball at \(\mathbf{C}\) has the greater distance than the ball at \(\mathrm{A}\) and \(\mathrm{B}\).

$$ \mathbf{C}>\mathbf{A}=\mathbf{B} $$

So, the distance of object and image is same for the two points \(\mathbf{A}\) and \(\mathbf{B}\). Hence, the separation between image and object of the ball at the points \(\mathbf{A}\) and \(\mathbf{B}\) is same.

The ball at \(\mathbf{C}\) has the greater distance from the mirror, so the image distance and object distance of the ball at \(\mathbf{C}\) has greater than the ball at the points \(\mathbf{A}\) and \(\mathbf{B}\).