Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

25.1 Wave Fronts and Rays Wave fronts: Surfaces of constant phases (2 apart) of a wave.

Rays: The lines the wave fronts in the direction of propagation. Spherical waves: Wave fronts are concentric spheres; rays along r.

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

Plane waves: Wave fronts are parallel planes with rays along a straight line.

Example: The plane wave (radiation eld) from a center-fed antenna

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

25.2 The Reection of Light The law of reection: (1) The incident ray, the reected ray, and the normal direction of the mirror are all in one planethe incident plane; (2) The incident angle is equal to the reected angle: i

= r .

General Physics II

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

What happens if the surface is not at?

r i

Digital movie projectors: Application of digital micromirror devices

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

25.3 The Formation of Images by a Plane Mirror Look into a mirror to see the image of an object, you see (1) An upright image of the same size of the object:

hi = ho ;

(2) A (virtual) image formed behind the mirror at the same distance of the object from the mirror: di

= do ;

(3) Objects left side becomes images right side, and vice versa.

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

Real image: Light passes through the image. Virtual image: The extension of light (but not the light itself) passes through the image (marked by a negative image distance).

Conceptual Example 1. Full image and half-sized mirror

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

25.4 Spherical Mirrors

Concave mirrors:

Note that parallel paraxial rays converge to a focal point after reection; AF

= CF f R/2.

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

Convex mirrors:

Parallel paraxial rays diverge (as if come from a focal point) after reection. Focal length:

f = di as do . For a concave spherical mirror, f R/2, and for a convex spherical mirror f R/2.

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

Spherical aberration and parabolic mirrors:

Spherical
1 0 0 1 0 1 11 00 00 11 00 11

Parabolic
1 0 0 1 0 1

Remarks: (1) A minus sign in a distance means that the corresponding object or image is virtual without the light actually passing through it; (2) Focal point is the image of an object at the innity. So the sign convention also applies to the focal length.

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

25.5 The Formation of Images by Spherical Mirrors Concave mirrors:

(1) A parallel ray becomes a ray going through the focal point; (2) A ray from the focal point turns into a parallel ray; (3) A ray from the spherical center goes back directly;

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

(4) A ray to the vertex reects back symmetrically.

Remarks: (1) Spherical aberration is ignored in constructing a ray diagram; (2) The effect of the curvature of the mirror is ignored in calculating distances and heights; (3) Two out of the four rays are needed in constructing a ray diagram; (4) The object and the image are interchangeable in a ray diagram: The principle of reversibility.

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

(5) Image can be real or virtual, upright or inverted, and enlarged or reduced. General features: (1) Image is real, inverted, and reduced if do

> 2f ; > do > f ; < f.

(2) Image is real, inverted, and enlarged if 2f (3) Image is virtual, upright, and enlarged if do

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

An application: The head-up display in a windshield

Multiple reections: the image from the rst mirror is the object of the second mirror, so forth.

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

Convex mirrors:

(1) A parallel ray becomes a ray coming from the focal point; (2) A ray to the focal point turns into a parallel ray; (3) A ray to the spherical center goes back directly;

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

(4) A ray to the vertex reects back symmetrically.

F
General features: (1) The image is always virtual, upright, and reduced;

(2) The image can be deceiving: Warning: Objects in mirror are closer than they appear! This is the warning on the mirror on the passenger side of a vehicle.

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

25.6 The Mirror Equation and the Magnication Equation

ho

do hi di

ho

do hi di

From the two pairs of similar triangles, we have

ho do do f = = , hi di f
which leads to

1 1 1 The mirror equation + = ; do di f hi di m= = . The magnication ho do

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

Remarks: (1) The equations are for both the concave (f (f

> 0) and convex

< 0) mirrors;

(2) All types of images can result, real (di

> 0) or virtual (di < 0), upright (hi > 0) or inverted (hi < 0), and enlarged (|m| > 1) or reduced (|m| < 1); = , and thus di = do d = do /m.
and hi

(3) Plane mirror is a special case with f

= ho ;

(4) Apparent distance for the image of a convex mirror:

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

Example 3. A real image of a concave mirror

= 2.0 cm, do = 7.10 cm, and R = 10.20 cm, nd (a) the image distance di and (b) the image height hi .
(a) The focal length is f equation we have

If ho

= R/2 = 5.10 cm. Then from the mirror

7.10 5.10 do f di = = cm = 18 cm. do f 7.10 5.10

(b) The image height is given by

di 18 hi = ho = 2.0 cm = 5.0 cm. do 7.10

Example 5. A virtual image of a convex mirror If do

= 66 cm and f = 46 cm, nd (a) di and (b) m.

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General Physics II

Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

(a) From the mirror equation, we have

66 (46) do f = cm = 27 cm. di = do f 66 + 46
(b) The magnication is then given by

hi di 27 m= = = = 0.41. ho do 66
Example 6. Convex mirror versus plane mirror

= 9.00 cm and di = 3.00 cm if the plane mirror is replaced by a convex mirror, nd f of the convex mirror.

If do

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

From the mirror equation, we have

do di do (do + di ) d2 f= = = do o do + di do do + di di 9.002 cm = 18 cm. = 9.00 3.00

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

A Quick recap: The mirror equation and magnication:

1 1 1 R + = ; f = , do di f 2 hi di m= = . ho do

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

Plane mirror:

f , di = do , and m = 1.
Convex mirror:

do R do f = < 0; di = do f 2do + R hi di R . m= = = ho do 2do + R

Note that |di |

< do and 0 < m < 1.

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

Concave mirror:

do f di = ; do f hi di m= = . ho do
The nature of the image depends on do (virtual, upright, and enlarged). Combination of mirrors: The image of the previous mirror is the object of the next mirror.

> 2f (real, inverted, and reduced), 2f < do > f (real, inverted, and enlarged), or do < f

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Chapter 25 The Reection of Light: Mirrors

T. Pang, Ph.D.

Key Issues of the Chapter: (i) The law of reection: i

= r ;

(ii) The mirror equation and magnication:

1 1 1 di hi + = ; m= = , do di f ho do
where f

= R/2 for a spherical mirror; .

(iii) The plane mirror is the limit of R

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