Reflection of light

Introduction to Light
 Light is a form of energy due to which we are able to see the objects which
emits or reflects light.
 Objects like sun, lamp, candle emits light of their own and thus they are
known as luminous objects.
 The objects which do not emit light of their own and thus they are known as
non-luminous objects.
 Light rays basically consist of electromagnetic waves which do not require
any material medium (like solid, liquid or gas) for their propagation.
 Wavelength of visible light waves is very small and is of the order of 4 ×
10−7 𝑚 𝑡𝑜 8 × 10−7 𝑚.
 Speed of light in vacuum is: 3 × 108 𝑚⁄𝑠.
 Speed of light in air is slightly less than the speed of light in vacuum but for
practical purpose it is taken same.
 When light falls on the surface of an object it can either be
1. Absorbed: If an object absorbs all the light falling on it, then it will
appear perfectly black. For example, a blackboard.
2. Transmitted: An object is said to transmit light if it allows light to pass
through itself and such objects are transparent.
3. Reflected: If an object sends back light rays falling on its surface, then
it is said to have reflected the light

Reflection of Light
 The process of bouncing back light rays which falls on the surface of an object
is called REFLECTION of light
 Silver metal is one of the best reflectors of light.
 Some terms related to reflection:
1. Incident light:
Light which falls on the surface is called incident light.
2. Reflected light:
Light which goes back after reflection is called reflected light.
3. The angle of incidence:
The angle between the incident ray and the normal.
4. An angle of reflection:
The angle between the reflected ray and the normal.
Laws of Reflection of light
1. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.
∠𝒊 = ∠𝒓
2. The incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal to the mirror at the point of
incidence all lie in the same plane.

Real and Virtual images

 An image is formed when the light rays coming from an object actually meet
or seems to meet at a point after reflection from a mirror or refraction from
lens.
 The images are of two types
 Real Images:
1 Real images are formed when rays of light that comes from an
object actually meets at a point after reflection from a mirror or
refraction from a lens.
2 Real images can be formed on a screen.
 Virtual images:
1 Virtual image is an image in which the reflected rays from an
object do not meet at a point but appears to meet at a point.

Difference between the real and virtual image

Real image Virtual image

A real image is formed when the light A virtual image is formed when the light
rays converge & actually meet after rays from a point diverge & appears to
reflection or refraction. meet after reflection or refraction.
A real image can be obtained on A virtual image can’t be obtained on
screen. screen.
Real image formed will always be Virtual image formed will always be
inverted. erect.

Characteristics of images formed by plane mirror:

 Images formed by mirrors are always virtual and erect.

 Size of image is always equal to the size of the object and the image is
laterally inverted.
 The images formed by the plane mirror are as far behind the mirror as the
object in front of the mirror.
 Lateral inversion: The right side of the object appears to be the left side and
left side of the object appears to be the right side of this image. This change
of sides of an object and its mirror image is called lateral inversion.
Spherical Mirrors
 The mirror which is a part of hollow sphere is called spherical mirror.
 The reflecting surface of a spherical mirror may be curved inwards or
outwards.
 Spherical mirrors are of two types
 Concave mirror:
1 In a concave mirror reflection of light takes place at the concave
surface or bent-in surface.

 Convex mirror:
1 In a convex mirror reflection of light takes place at the convex
surface or bent out surface.

Commonly used terms about Spherical mirrors

Center of curvature:
 The centre of sphere of which mirror is a part is called the center of
curvature of the spherical mirror.
 It is represented by the letter C.
 Radius of curvature:
 The radius of the sphere of which the mirror is a part, is called the
radius of curvature of the mirror.
 It is represented by the letter R.
  Pole:
 The center of a spherical mirror is called its pole.
 It is represented by letter P.
 Principal axis:
 Imaginary straight line passing through the pole and the center of
curvature of a spherical mirror is called principal axis of the mirror.
 Aperture of the mirror:
 Portion of the mirror from which reflection of light actually takes place
is called the aperture of the mirror.
 Principle focus and focal length
 All light rays parallel to principal axis passes or seems to pass through
a single point after reflection.
 This point is represented by f.
 The distance of this point from pole is called focal length.

Rules for obtaining images formed by spherical mirrors

(1) Rule 1
A ray of light which is parallel to the principal axis of the mirror passes through its
focus after reflection from the mirror.

(2) Rule 2
A ray of light passing through the center of curvature, is reflected back along the
same path.
(3) Rule 3
A ray passing through focus becomes parallel to the principal axis after reflection
and is shown below in the figure

Image formation by spherical mirrors

Image formation by concave mirror

 The type of image formed by a concave mirror depends on the position of the
object kept in front of the mirror. We can place the object at following places
Uses of concave mirror:
 Concave mirrors are used as shaving mirrors, reflectors in car headlights,
hand torch and table lamps.
 Large concave mirrors are used in field of solar energy to focus sun rays on
objects to be heated.

Image formation by convex mirrors

Uses of convex mirror:

 Convex mirrors are used as rear-view mirrors in automobiles to see the traffic at
back side as they give erect images and also highly diminished one giving
the wide field view of traffic behind.

Sign convention for reflection by spherical mirrors

 All distances parallel to the principal axis are measured from the pole of the
mirror.
 All the distances measured to the right of pole are taken as positive while
those measured to the left of the pole are taken as negative.
 Distances measured above the principal axis are taken as positive.
 Distances measured below the principal axis are taken as negative.

Mirror formula and magnification

Mirror formula:
It gives the relationship between image distance (v), object distance (u) and the
focal length (f) of the mirror and is written as
𝟏 𝟏 𝟏
+ =
𝒗 𝒖 𝒇
Where,
 v: the distance of image from the mirror
 u: the distance of object from the mirror
 f: the focal length of the mirror.
Magnification
 Magnification produced by a spherical mirror is given by the ratio of the
height of the image to the height of the object.
 It is usually represented by the letter m. So,
𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒆
𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 =
𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕

The magnification m is also related to the object distance (u) and image
distance (v) and is given as
−𝒗
𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒏𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 =
𝒖