physics

Reflection

Plane mirror

Consider a source point A sending light rays onto a plane mirror. A simple construction of the

reflected rays shows that all the emerging rays seem to come from a point A', virtual image of

A. In the same way, if we reverse the direction of the light, we see that the image of a virtual

object placed in A' is a real image placed in A. The plane mirror is therefore strictly stigmatic.

  • Conjugation relationship

The position of the image relative to the mirror equals the position of the object relative to the

mirror. The image A' is symmetrical to the object A in relation to the mirror

Where H is the orthogonal projection of A on the mirror: the image of A is the orthogonal

symmetric of A

The object and the image are of different natures :

- Real Object-Virtual Image

- Virtual Object-Real Image

The size of the image equals the size of the object :

Spherical Mirror

A spherical mirror is a reflective spherical surface with a center C, a vertex S, and a radius of curvature R. There are two types of spherical mirrors : Concave (𝑹 = (SC)< 0) and Convex (𝑹 = (SC) > 0)

The conjugate relationship for a spherical Mirror :

The magnification 𝜸of a spherical mirror :

The focal distances SFet SF' have the following expressions :

PreviousPreviousNextNext
HomepageHomepagePrintPrintCreated with Scenari (new window)