Chapter 33: Mirrors

A mirror is an optical element that reflects the light incident on it.  This chapter deals with various mirrors (flat, concave, and convex) and their properties.  The focus of this chapter is understanding images formed by mirrors.  You will use ray diagrams, explore the focal length and focal point of mirrors, and learn about real and virtual images in order to understand image formation, image location and image properties.

Table of Contents

Illustrations

• Illustration 33.1: Mirrors and the Small-Angle Approximation.
• Illustration 33.2: Flat Mirrors.

Explorations

• Exploration 33.1: Image in a Flat Mirror.
• Exploration 33.2: Looking at Curved Mirrors.
• Exploration 33.3: Ray Diagrams.
• Exploration 33.4: Focal Point and Image Point.
• Exploration 33.5: Convex Mirrors, Focal Point, and Radius of Curvature.

Problems

• Problem 33.1: Focal length of concave mirror, point source.
• Problem 33.2: Focal length of concave mirror, beam source.
• Problem 33.3: Image in concave mirror.
• Problem 33.4: Focal length of concave mirror, object source.
• Problem 33.5: Focal length of convex mirror, object source.
• Problem 33.6: Focal length of convex mirror, point source.
• Problem 33.7: "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear."
• Problem 33.8: Hidden mirrors, point source.