Engineering Physics I - Reflection of light by spherical mirror

 

Reflection of light by spherical mirror



Curved or spherical mirror:

Concave and convex mirror are the examples of curved mirror.

Concave mirror:

It is a part of spherical glass whose outer side is polished and inner side is reflecting.

Convex mirror:

It is a part of spherical glass whose inner side is polished and outer side is reflecting.

Pole of the mirror:

The midpoint ‘P’ of the mirror is called pole of the mirror.

Center of curvature:

The center of the sphere of which the mirror is a part is known as center of curvature ‘C’.

Aperture:

Length of mirror is known as aperture.

Principal axis:

A straight line passing through the center of curvature and pole of the mirror is called principal axis.

Principal focus (F):

When a narrow parallel beam of rays incident on the surface of concave or convex mirror, all the reflected rays converge or appear to diverge to or from a fixed point of the principal axis. The fixed point is known as principal focus of these mirrors.

Focal length (f) :

The distance between pole of mirror ‘P’ and principal focus ‘F’ is called focal length (f) of the mirror.

Radius of curvature (R) :

The distance between the pole of mirror ‘P’ and the center of curvature ‘C’ is called radius of curvature(R).





Relation between R and f






















Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Engineering Physics I - Earth's Magnetism

Engineering Physics I - Refraction Through Lenses