Read
Read "The Law of Reflection" on pages 653-654 in your textbook.

 

Image Formation in Plane (Flat) Mirrors

 

Ray diagrams, similar to those that have been used in the previous activities, can illustrate the process of image formation.  Consider two light rays originating from the top of a tree by a smooth lake.  Constructing a ray diagram that illustrates the law of reflection predicts that an image of the tree will form upside down.  The dotted lines "appear" to your eyes to be rays of light from the image, but they don't actually come from the image.  Because the two light rays only appear to have originated from a single point, the image formed in this ray diagram is said to be a "virtual image."

 


 

Any image formed by a plane mirror is a virtual image.  The orientation and size of images formed by plane mirrors may be predicted by constructing a simple ray diagram based on the law of reflection.


Try This
Complete "QuickLab" on page 655 of the text then answer questions 1, 2, 3, and 4.  When done, complete the chart below using information from page 656.


Image Characteristic

Definition

magnification

 

attitude

 

position

 

real image

 

virtual image