MIRRORS
A mirror is an optical device that forms an image by reflecting light. We’ve all
looked into a mirror and seen images of nearby objects. Flat mirrors are called
plane mirrors. Let’s begin with a plane mirror; the simplest type of mirror. Then
we’ll examine curved mirrors; we’ll have to use geometrical methods or algebraic
equations to analyze the patterns of reflection from these.
Plane Mirrors
The figure below shows an object (denoted by a bold arrow) in front of a flat
mirror. Light that’s reflected off of the object strikes the mirror and is reflected
back to our eyes. The directions of the rays reflected off the mirror determines
where we perceive the image to be.
There are four questions we’ll answer about the image formed by a mirror.
(1) Where is the image?