Ideal Mirrors

🔖 Topics

• Ideal mirrors
• Focal length and radius of curvature
• Object distance and image distance
• Magnification

🎯 Objectives

• Describe the properties of an ideal mirror
• Calculate the properties of images formed by an ideal mirror

📋 Sequence

We will cover plane mirrors, convex mirrors, and concave mirrors. In each of the cases, we will discuss:

• Positive / negative conventions
• Object further out than the focal point
• Object closer in than the focal point
• Object at the focal point

🖥️ Animations, Simulations, Activities

• Ray Optics, Ideal Mirror - https://maheshkurmi.github.io/rayoptics/ideal_mirror.html

📝 Practice Problems

For each of the problems below, sketch out a ray diagram of the system before doing any calculations.

1. A rose in a vase is placed 0.250 m in front of a plane mirror. You stand 2.00 m in front of the mirror. How far are you from the image of the rose?
2. A 1.80 cm high object is placed 20 cm in front of a concave mirror with a focal length of 5 cm. How far from the mirror is the image located? Is it in front of or behind the mirror?
3. An object is placed in front of a concave mirror with a radius of curvature of 25 cm. A real image, twice the size of the object, is formed. What is the object distance from the mirror? Is it in front of or behind the mirror?

✅ Partial Solutions

1. 2.25 m
2. 6.67 cm in front of the mirror
3. 18.8 cm in front of the mirror

📘 Connected Resources

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