Reflection of Light at Plane and Curved Surfaces

Question 1

What are the laws of reflection?

Answer 1

The laws of reflection are:

The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.
The incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal to the surface all lie in the same plane.

Question 2

How does a plane mirror form an image?

Answer 2

A plane mirror forms a virtual, upright, and laterally inverted image that is the same size as the object and appears to be behind the mirror at a distance equal to the distance of the object from the mirror.

Question 3

How are images formed by concave and convex mirrors?

Answer 3

Concave mirrors can form real, inverted images when the object is placed outside the focal point, or virtual, upright, and magnified images when the object is inside the focal point.

Convex mirrors always form virtual, upright, and diminished images, regardless of the object’s position.

Question 4

What is the mirror formula and how is it used?

Answer 4

The mirror formula is
**1 / 𝑓 = 1 / 𝑢 + 1 / 𝑣 **
where
𝑓 is the focal length,
𝑢 is the object distance, and
𝑣 is the image distance. This formula is used to find the position of the image formed by a mirror.

Question 5

Q: What is linear magnification in mirrors?

Answer 5

Linear magnification (𝑀) is the ratio of the height of the image (ℎ𝑖) to the height of the object (ℎ𝑜)
​It is also given by the ratio of image distance (𝑣) to object distance (𝑢):
**𝑀 = ℎ𝑖 /ℎ𝑜 = 𝑣/𝑢 **

Question 6

How are the laws of reflection applied in devices like periscopes, kaleidoscopes, and sextants?

Answer 6

Periscopes use two plane mirrors arranged at 45° to allow a person to see over or around obstacles.

Kaleidoscopes use multiple plane mirrors arranged at specific angles to create symmetrical patterns.

Sextants use the reflection of light to measure the angle between two visible objects, typically for navigation.