Positions of Object and Image in Concave Mirror
Position of Object Position of Image Size of Image Nature of Image
At infinity At focus Highly diminished Real and inverted
Between infinity and C Between F and C Dminished Real and inverted
At C At C Same size Real and inverted
Between C and F Beyond C Enlarged Real and inverted
At F At infinity Highly enlarged Real and inverted
Between F and P Behind mirror Enlarged Virtual and erect
Positions and Nature of Image in Convex Mirror
Position of Object Position of Image Size of Image Nature of Image
At infinity At F, behind mirror Highly diminished Virtual and erect
Between infinity and P Between F and P, behind mirror Diminished Virtual and erect
Where F is focus, P is pole and C is the centre of curvature.
Uses of Mirrors
Plane mirror : looking glass,
constructing periscope, solar cookers,
kaleidoscope, measuring instruments
Concave Mirror : headlights of cars,
dentist"s mirror, solar devices, reflecting
telescopes, satellite dishes, flash-lights, Total Internal Reflection
electron microscopes, etc.
Convex mirror : street lamps, real view It occurs when light attempts to move from a
mirror, etc. medium having a given refractive index to a
medium having a lower refractive index.
Refraction
It is the bending of a wave when it enters a
medium where its speed is different.
The refraction of light when it passes from
a fast medium to a slow medium bends the
light ray toward the normal to the
boundary between the two media.
Snell"s law or Laws of Refraction When light is incident upon a medium of
lesser index of refraction, the ray is bent away
It states that for a given pair of media and a
from the normal, so the exit angle is greater
wave with a single frequency, the ratio of the
than the incident angle. Such reflection is
sines of the angle of incidence θ1 and angle of
commonly called "internal reflection". The
refraction θ2 is equivalent to the ratio of phase
exit angle will then approach 90° for some
velocities (v1 / v2) in the two media, or
critical incident angle θc, and for incident
equivalently, to the opposite ratio of the
angles greater than the critical angle there will
indices of refraction (n2 / n1):
be total internal reflection.
sin 1 v n
1 2 e.g. air bubbles in glass paper weight appears
sin 2 v 2 n1
silvery white, Sparkling of diamond, etc.
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