What is Mirror?

A mirror can be defined as an object that has a reflecting surface. When a light ray falls on a mirror, the incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal to the surface of the mirror all lie in the same plane, and the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. Reflecting surfaces in mirrors obey laws of reflection. Let us read more about mirror and its types

Types of Mirror

Mirror as a reflecting surface can be classified as a plane mirror and spherical mirror.

Plane Mirror
Spherical Mirror

Plane Mirror

Plane Mirrors are the those whose reflecting surface is plane. These are daily mirrors which just reflect image in their normal size and shape but laterally reversed. You can check out this with showing numbers on the mirror in your home, the number will always be reversed in mirror image.

Spherical Mirror

Spherical Mirrors are those whose reflecting surface is curved. There are two types of spherical mirrors. These are

Concave Mirror
Convex Mirror

Concave Mirror

Concave Mirror are spherical mirror whose reflecting surface is curved in or bulge in. Consider the spoon with which you eat. That is what a concave mirror looks like. Concave mirrors are used shaving mirrors and in car head lights. They are converging in nature and generally produce magnified image.

You can read more about image formation in convex mirror.

Convex Mirror

Convex Mirror are spherical mirrors whose reflecting surface is curved out or bulge out. Consider the back side of a spoon. This represents a convex mirror. Convex mirror produces diminished images and are diverging in nature. They are used in car side mirrors.

Understand the difference between both concave and convex mirror here.

Ray Optics – Definition, Formula, Applications

Ray Optics is the study of properties of light and optical instruments by assuming that light travels in a straight line. It is also known as geometrical optics, which deals with the geometry of light. Light always travels in a straight line, and the direction in which the light rays propagate is called the ray of light. It studies the principles and laws governing the propagation of light, particularly in the absence of wave effects such as interference and diffraction.

In this article, we will learn about ray optics, reflection, refraction, concave and convex mirrors, lenses, and formulas related to them.