King Saud University

College of Applied Studies

and Community Service
Department of Natural Sciences

The Reflection of Light

General Physics II
PHYS 111
Nouf Alkathran
[email protected]
 Outline
• Introduction
• The Texture of a Surface Affects How it Reflects
Light
• Diffuse Reflection
• Specular Reflection
• The Law of Reflection
• Flat Mirrors
• Apparent Left-Right Image Reversal
• Image Characteristics for flat Mirrors
• Curved Mirrors
 Outline
• Concave Spherical Mirrors
• Imaging with Concave Mirrors
• A Real Image
• A Virtual Image
• Convex Spherical Mirrors
• Imaging with Convex Mirrors
• Magnification and Mirror Equations
• Sign Conventions for Spherical Mirrors
• Questions
 Introduction
• All substances absorb at
least some incoming light
and reflect the rest.
• Light very often travels in
straight lines. We represent
light using rays, which are
straight lines emanating
from an object. This is an
idealization, but is very
useful for geometric optics.
 The Texture of a Surface Affects
How it Reflects Light
• The manner in which light is reflected from a
surface depends on the surface’s smoothness.
• diffuse reflection
• specular reflection
 Diffuse Reflection
• Light that is reflected from a
rough, textured surface, such as
paper, cloth, is reflected in
many different directions. This
type of reflection is called
diffuse reflection.
• With diffuse reflection, your
eye sees reflected light at all
angles.
 Specular Reflection
• Light reflected from smooth,
shiny surfaces, such as a mirror
or water in a pond, is reflected
in one direction only, as shown
in the Figure . This type of
reflection is called specular
reflection.
• With specular reflection (from
a mirror), your eye must be in
the correct position.
 The Law of Reflection
• States that the incoming and
the reflected angles are equal

• You probably have noticed

that when incoming rays of
light strike a smooth reflecting
surface, such as a polished
table or mirror, at an angle
close to the surface, the
reflected rays are also close to
the surface. An example of this
similarity between incoming
and reflected rays is shown in
the Figure.
 The Law of Reflection
• If a straight line is drawn
perpendicular to the reflecting
surface at the point where the
incoming ray strikes the surface,
the angle of incidence and the
angle of reflection can be
defined with respect to the line.
Careful measurements of the
incident and reflected angles θ
and θ' , respectively, reveal that
the angles are equal, as
illustrated in the Figure .
θ = θ'
angle of incoming light ray = angle of reflected light ray
 FLAT MIRRORS
• If an object, such as a pencil, is placed at a distance in
front of a flat mirror and light is bounced off the
pencil, light rays will spread out from the pencil and
reflect from the mirror’s surface. To an observer
looking at the mirror, these rays appear to come from
a location on the other side of the mirror.
 FLAT MIRRORS
• As a convention, an object’s image is said to be at this
location behind the mirror because the light appears
to come from that point. The relationship between the
object distance from the mirror, which is represented
as p, and the image distance, which is represented as
q, is such that the object and image distances are
equal. Similarly, the image of the object is the same
size as the object.
 FLAT MIRRORS
• The image formed by rays that
appear to come from the image
point behind the mirror, but never
really do is called a virtual
image.
• a flat mirror always forms a
virtual image, which always
appears as if it is behind the
surface of the mirror. For this
reason, a virtual image can never
be displayed on a physical
surface.
 Ray Diagrams
• Suppose you want to make a ray
diagram for a pencil placed in
front of a flat mirror. First, sketch
the situation. Draw the location
and arrangement of the mirror
and the position of the pencil with
respect to the mirror. Construct
the drawing so that the object and
the image distances (p and q,
respectively) are proportional to
their actual sizes. To simplify
matters, we will consider only the
tip of the pencil.
 Ray Diagrams
• To pinpoint the location of the pencil tip’s
image, draw two rays on your diagram.
1. Draw the first ray from the pencil tip
perpendicular to the mirror’s surface.
Because this ray makes an angle of 0°
with a line perpendicular (or normal) to
the mirror, the angle of reflection also
equals 0°, causing the ray to reflect back
on itself.
2. Draw the second ray from the tip of the
pencil to the mirror, but this time place
the ray at an angle that is not
perpendicular to the surface of the mirror.
3. Then, draw the reflected ray, keeping in
mind that it will reflect away from the
surface of the mirror at an angle, θ’ ,
equal to the angle of incidence, θ.
 Ray Diagrams
4. Next, trace both reflected rays back to the point from
which they appear to have originated, that is, behind the
mirror. Use dotted lines when drawing these rays that
appear to emerge from behind the mirror to distinguish
them from the actual rays of light (the solid lines) in front
of the mirror. The point at which these dotted lines meet is
the image point, which in this case is where the image of
the pencil’s tip forms.
5. By continuing this process for all of the other parts of the
pencil, you can locate the complete virtual image of the
pencil.
• Note that the pencil’s image appears as far behind the mirror
as the pencil is in front of the mirror (p = q). Likewise, the
object height, h, equals the image height, h′.
 Apparent Left-Right Image Reversal
• The image formed by a flat mirror
appears reversed to an observer in
front of the mirror. You can easily
observe this effect by placing a piece
of writing in front of a mirror, In the
mirror, each of the letters is reversed.
You may also notice that the angle the
word and its reflection make with
respect to the mirror is the same.
• Emergency vehicles are usually
reverse-lettered so the lettering
appears normal in the rear view
mirror of a car.
 Image Characteristics for flat
Mirrors
1. Creating a virtual image
2. Apparent Left-Right Image Reversal
3. Object Distance and Image Distance are equal
4. Relative Size of Image and Object are the same
 Curved Mirrors
• CONCAVE SPHERICAL MIRRORS
• CONVEX SPHERICAL MIRRORS
• If the inside surface of the spherical mirror is polished, it is a concave
mirror. If the outside surface is polished, is it a convex mirror. R is the
radius of curvature of the mirror.
• The principal axis of the mirror is a straight line drawn through the center
of curvature C and the midpoint of the mirror.
 CONCAVE SPHERICAL
MIRRORS

• The images for objects close to the

mirror are larger than the object
and it is a virtual image Figure (a).

• whereas the images of objects far

from the mirror are smaller and
upside down and it is a real image
Figure (b).
 Concave Spherical Mirror
• A spherical mirror with light reflecting from its silvered,
concave surface (that is, the inner surface of a sphere) is called
a concave spherical mirror.

• The focal point F of a concave mirror is halfway between the

center of curvature of the mirror C and the mirror at B.
f = (½) R
 IMAGING WITH CONCAVE
MIRRORS
• To find the image of an object placed in front of a concave mirror, there are
several types of rays which are particularly useful ray tracing
 A Real Image
• If the object is placed between F and C, the image is real, inverted and
magnified.
• If the object is placed at a distance greater than C from the mirror, the
image is real, inverted and reduced in size. A real image is one where light
is actually passing through the image (it can be projected onto a screen).
 A Virtual Image
• When an object is placed between the focal point F and a
concave mirror, The image is virtual, upright, and magnified
(as in the case of images from flat mirrors, a virtual image is
one from which light appears to be emanating but through
which light does not pass, e.g. it cannot be projected onto a
screen).
 CONVEX SPHERICAL
MIRRORS
• A convex spherical mirror is a segment of a sphere that is silvered so that
light is reflected from the sphere’s outer, convex surface . This type of
mirror is called a convex spherical mirror
• For convex mirrors the image of an object is always virtual, upright, and
reduced in size.
 IMAGING WITH CONVEX
MIRRORS
• Ray 1 is initially parallel to the principal axis and appears to
originate from the focal point.
• Ray 2 heads towards the focal point, emerging parallel to the
principal axis.
• Ray 3 travels toward the center of curvature and reflects back
on itself.
 IMAGING WITH CONVEX
MIRRORS
• So far we have discussed concave and convex mirrors
qualitatively and graphically. We now want to derive two
simple equations which provide quantitative relationships
among the quantities we have defined to describe mirrors, i.e.,
• f =focal length
• do =object distance
• di =image distance
• m = magnification
 Magnification and Mirror
Equations

Both equations are valid for concave and convex mirrors and for
real and virtual images.
 MIRROR EQUATION
• The following equation relates object distance,
p or d0, image distance, q or di, and the radius
of curvature, R, is called the mirror equation.
 The Magnification
• The curved mirrors form images that are not the same
size as the object. The measure of how large or small
the image is with respect to the original object’s size
is called the magnification of the image.
 Sign Conventions for Spherical
Mirrors
• f is + for a concave mirror.
• f is − for a convex mirror.

• do is + if the object is in front of the mirror.

• do is − if the object is behind the mirror.

• di is + if the object is in front of the mirror (real image).

• di is − if the object is behind the mirror (virtual image).

• m is + for an image upright with respect to the object.

• m is - for an image inverted with respect to the object.
 Questions
• A 2.0 cm high object is placed 7.10 cm from a concave mirror
whose radius of curvature is 10.20 cm. Find the location of the
image and its size.
 Questions
• A convex mirror is used to reflect light from an object placed
66 cm in front of the mirror. The focal length of the mirror is
46 cm in back of the mirror. Find the location of the image and
the magnification.