By

Mark Jordan
©

The Professional Development Service for Teachers is funded by the

Department of Education and Skills under the National Development Plan
OUTLINE OF THE DAY

To Be Completed by Class Teacher

The Professional Development Service for Teachers is funded by the Department of

Education and Science under the National Development Plan
 What do you think?

• Light is stated to travel at a of 299 792 458 m / s. so how long does it take
light to come from the Sun to Earth?

• How often could light travel around the earth in one second?

• With the advent of new innovative technology is it likely that light will be
made travel faster in the future?

• Dave Grennan, Irish astronomer, recently discovered a supernova that

exploded nearly 300,000 years ago yet the light from that explosion is now
only reaching Earth. How is this possible?
(see notes for more information)
 Light is part of
Electromagnetic Spectrum
– the part we can see, i.e. the visible spectrum

Shortest  Longest 

Electromagnetic waves (including light)

travel at a speed of 3 x 108 ms-1
(see notes for more information)
 The visible spectrum is made up of seven colours.
• Can you explain why we can see these different
colours.
• Is black a colour?

Light bounces of surfaces. Click the link below (must have Quicktime
installed) to find more about bouncing light and ……. photons.

http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/lsps07_vid_lightreflect/
A ray of light is an extremely narrow
beam of light.
All visible objects emit or reflect
light rays in all directions.
Our eyes detect light rays.
We see images when
light rays
converge in our eyes.
Light can be reflected. Reflection is the
bouncing of light of a solid object
It is possible to see
images in mirrors.

image

object
Mirrors are good at reflecting light rays.
Plane Mirrors How do we see images in
mirrors?

Light reflected off the mirror converges to form an image in the eye.

image

The eye perceives light rays as if they came from the mirror.
The image is virtual since it is formed by the apparent intersection of light rays.
(apparent rays are indicated on the diagram as broken lines and actually don’t exist)
Laws of Reflection Exp.- Follow steps in animation
The normal is a line right angles to the mirror where the ray of light hits it.
(A ray of light striking the mirror at 900 is reflected back along the same path).

Law 1 normal

When light is reflected off

a mirror, it hits the mirror
at the same angle (the
incidence angle, θi) as it Angle of Angle of
reflection incidence
reflects off the mirror (the
reflection angle, θr). reflected incident
ray ray
Law 2
The incident ray,
the reflected ray
θr θi
and the normal
are all lie on the
same plane.
Mirror
 Points to ponder

• A driver in a parked car has 2 views of the car parked behind him – ‘rear view
mirror’ (right) & in the ‘side mirror ‘(left).
o How is it that each mirror gives a different view?
o Which view represents the true distance the parked car is from the drivers car?
(see notes for more information)
 Concave Mirror- Part of a sphere reflective
surface on inside

r
• •
C F
f

C: the center point of the sphere

r: radius of curvature (just the radius of the sphere)

F: the focal point of the mirror (halfway between C and the mirror)
f: the focal distance, f = r/2
 Concave Mirrors
(caved in)

•
F
optical axis

•Light rays that come in parallel to the optical axis reflect through the focal
point
•Light rays that come in along the optical axis strike the mirror at 90 so reflect
back along optical axis through the focal point.
 Concave Mirror
Image formed in a concave mirror object placed outside centre of curvature

Centre of Curvature Focus

v

Object
• •
f
c F
Principal axis
u

Image:- Real, Inverted & diminished

 Concave Mirror
Image formed in a concave mirror when object placed at centre of curvature

Centre of Curvature uFocus

Object
• •
f
c F
Principal axis

Image:- Real, Inverted & diminished

 Concave Mirror
Image formed in a concave mirror when object placed between centre of
curvature & focus

Centre of Curvature Focus

u

Object
• •
f
c F
Principal axis

v
Image:- Real, Inverted & Enlarged
 Concave Mirror
Image formed in a concave mirror when object placed at focus

Centre of Curvature Focus u

Object
• •
f
c F
Principal axis

Image:- At Infinity
 Concave Mirror
Image formed in a concave mirror when object placed inside focus

Centre of Curvature u
Focus
Object
• •
c F
Principal axis
v
f

Image:- Virtual, Erect & Enlarged

 Equation

1 1 1
 
f u v
ƒ = focal length
u = object distance
v = image distance

if distance is negative the image is behind the mirror

Magnification Equation

v
m
v
m = magnification
v = image height
u = object height

if the magnification is negative

the image is inverted (upside down)
 Sign Convention for Mirrors
Quantity Positive (+) Negative (--)

Object location (u) Object is in front of Object is behind

the mirror the mirror
Image location (v) Image is front Image is behind of
mirror mirror
Focal length (f) Mirror is concave Mirror is convex

Magnification (M) Image is upright Image is inverted

 TO FIND THE FOCAL LENGTH OF A CONCAVE
MIRROR
Concave Crosswire
mirror

Lamp-box

Screen

Procedure
• Get the approx. focal length of mirror by focusing distant object on screen – why?
• Place the lamp-box well outside the approximate focal length – why?
• Move the screen until a clear inverted image of the crosswire is obtained.
• Measure the distance u from the crosswire to the mirror, using the metre stick.
• Measure the distance v from the screen to the mirror.
• Calculate the focal length of the mirror using - - - - - - 1 1 1
 
• Repeat this procedure for different values of u. f u v
• Calculate f each time and then find an average value.
 Convex Mirrors

•
F
optical axis

Light rays that come in parallel to the optical axis reflect from the focal point.

The focal point is considered virtual since sight lines, not light rays, go through it.
 Convex Mirrors

Focus
Centre of Curvature
v
Object
• •
u F C
f

principal axis

Image:- Virtual, Erect & Diminished