LIGHT

Laws of Reflection
 The angle of incidence is equal to angle of reflection

 Incident ray, reflected ray and normal all lie in the same plane.

Spherical Mirrors
Most common type of curved mirrors are spherical mirrors. Mirrors in which
reflecting surface are spherical in shape, is known as spherical mirrors.
Reflecting surface of a mirror can be curved inwards or curved outwards. The
one which is curved inward is known as concave mirror and the one which
curved outwards is known as convex mirror.

Fig.1. Spherical mirrors

Some Important Terms
 Pole- The centre of the reflecting surface in a spherical mirror is a
pole. It is represented by P.

 Centre of curvature- Reflecting surface in a spherical mirror has a

centre, this is known as centre of curvature. Centre of curvature in
convex mirror lies behind the mirror whereas in concave mirror, it lies
in front of the mirror.

 Radius of curvature- The radius of the reflecting surface of the

spherical mirror is known as radius of curvature. It is represented by
R.

 Principal axis- Straight line passing through the pole and centre of
curvature in a spherical mirror is known as principal axis.

 Principal focus- The reflected rays appear to come from a point on the
principal axis, this is known as principal focus.

 Focal length- The distance between the pole and the principal focus in
a spherical mirror is known as focal length and it is represented by f.
  Aperture- The diameter of the reflecting surface is defined as
aperture.

Note: Radius of curvature is twice the focal length (R=2f).

Fig.2. Image showing pole, principal axis, centre of curvature,

aperture and principal focus in concave mirror
Representations of the images formed by Spherical
Mirrors using Ray Diagrams
We draw the ray diagram to locate the image of an object formed. The
intersection point of at least two reflected will give the position of image of the
point object. The two rays that can be used to draw the ray diagram are-

 A ray parallel to the principal axis should pass through the focus after
reflection in case of concave mirror, or appear to diverge in case of
convex mirror.
 A ray passing through the focus of the concave mirror or directed
towards the focus in case of convex mirror, should appear parallel to
the principal axis after reflection.

 A ray which is passing through the centre of curvature in a concave

mirror or directed in case of convex mirror, should reflect along the
same path.

 A ray when incident obliquely to principal axis on a concave or convex

mirror is also reflected obliquely.
 Image formation by Concave Mirror

Fig. 3. Ray diagram for the image formation by concave mirror

Position of the
Position of the image Size of the image Nature of the image
object
At infinity At the focus F Highly diminished Real and inverted
Beyond C Between F and C Diminished Real and inverted
At C At C Same size Real and inverted
Between C and F Beyond C Enlarged Real and inverted
At F At infinity Highly enlarged Real and inverted
Between P and F Behind the mirror Enlarged Virtual and erect
Table.1. Nature, relative size and position of the image formed by
concave mirror
Position, nature, and the size of the image formed by a concave mirror is
dependent on the position of the object in relation to P, C and F. Image formed
can be real or virtual. The image can also be magnified, diminished or even of
the same size.

Uses of Concave Mirror

Used in search lights, torches, head lights of the vehicles. Also used in shaving
mirrors. Used by dentists also to see larger image of the teeth. Other use in
solar furnaces.

Image formation by Convex Mirror

Two positions of the object are considered while understanding the image
formed by convex mirror. Either the object should be at infinity or at finite
distance from the mirror. Formation of the image by the convex mirror are as
follows-
 Fig. 5. Ray diagram for the image formation by convex mirror
Size of the Nature of the
Position of the object Position of the image
image image
At the focus F, behind the Highly Virtual and
At infinity
mirror diminished erect
Between infinity and the pole P of Between P and F, behind the Virtual and
Diminished
the mirror mirror erect
Table.2. Nature, relative size and position of the image formed by
convex mirror
Uses of Convex Mirror
They are used as rear-view mirrors. They are used to see the traffic behind.
They are preferred as they give erect but diminished image.

Sign convention for reflection by spherical mirrors

New cartesian sign convention is used to give sign convention used for
spherical mirrors. The conventions are as follows-

1. The object is always placed to the left of the mirror.

2. All distances parallel to the principal axis are measured from the pole of the
mirror.

3. All the distances measured to the right of the origin (along + x-axis) are
taken as positive while those measured to the left of the origin (along – x-axis)
are taken as negative.

4. Distances measured perpendicular to and above the principal axis (along +

y-axis) will be taken as positive.

5. Distances measured perpendicular to and below the principal axis (along –y-
axis) will be taken as negative.

Mirror formula and magnification

The distance of the object from its pole is known as object distance (u),
whereas distance from the pole of the mirror is known as image distance (v).
The mirror formula is given by-

It is applicable for spherical mirrors in all positions of the object.

Magnification
It is defined as relative extent to which an object is magnified in comparison to
its object size.

Where m is the magnification, h o is the height of the object and h i is the height
of the image. However, it is to be taken as negative for real images. A negative
sign in the value of magnification indicates that the nature of the image is real.
A positive sign in the value of the magnification indicates the virtual nature of
the image.
Refraction of light
Bending of the light rays as it passes from one medium to another medium is
known as refraction of light.

Laws of Refraction
  Incident ray, refracted ray and normal all lie in the same plane.

 The ratio of sine of angle of incidence to the sine of angle of

refraction is constant. This law is also known as Snell’s law of
refraction.

Refractive Index
When light passes from one medium to another medium, it changes its
direction. The extent to which the direction changes is expressed in terms of
refractive index. The value of refractive index is dependent on the speed of
light in two media. v 1 is the speed of light in medium 1 and v 2 is the speed of
light in medium 2. The refractive index of medium 2 with respect to medium 1
is represented as n 21 .

If medium 1 is vacuum or air, then the refractive index of medium 2 with

respect to vacuum is known as absolute refractive index of the medium.

Where c is the speed of light in air, v is the speed of light in other medium and
n m is the refractive index of the medium.
Refraction by Spherical Lenses
Lenses are defined as transparent materials which are bounded by two
surfaces, out of which one or both can be spherical. When both the two
spherical surfaces bulge outwards, it is known as convex lens. They converge
the light rays. When the two spherical surfaces bulge inwards, they are known
as concave lens. They are known as diverging lens. The centre of these
spherical surfaces is known as centre of curvature, represented by C.

Any imaginary straight line passing through the centre of curvature of a lens is
known as principal axis. The centre point is known as optical centre. The
effective diameter of the spherical lens is known as aperture.

Image formation by lenses

Nature, relative size, and position of the image formed by convex lens are
given below in the form of table-
 Relative size of the
Position of the object Position of the image Nature of the image
image
At infinity At focus F 2 Highly diminished Real and inverted
Beyond 2F 1 Between F 2 and 2F 2 Diminished Real and inverted
At 2F 1 At 2F 2 Same size Real and inverted
Between F 1 and 2F 1 Beyond 2F 2 Enlarged Real and inverted
At focus F 1 At infinity Infinitely large Real and inverted
Between focus F 1 and On the same side of the
Enlarged Virtual and erect
optical centre O lens as the object
Image formation in Lenses using Ray Diagrams
Rules for drawing the ray diagrams are as follows-

1. A ray of light which is parallel to the principal axis will pass through the
principal focus after refraction from the convex lens.

2. A ray of light passing through principal focus, will emerge parallel to

principal axis after refraction from the convex lens.

3. A light ray passing through optical centre will emerge out without any
deviation.
Image formed by the Convex Lens for various positions
of the object

Image formed by the Concave Lens

Sign convention for Spherical Lenses
Sign convention are used as similar for spherical mirrors. But the focal length
of a convex lens is positive and that of concave lens in negative.

Lens formula and magnification

The lens formula is given as

Where, u is object distance, v is image distance and f is focal length.

The ratio of the height of an image to the height of an object is defined as

magnification.

Magnification is represented by m, h 0 is the height of the object and h i is the

height of the image.

Power of a Lens
The degree of convergence or divergence of light rays is expressed in terms of
power. So, the reciprocal of focal length is known as its power. It is
represented by letter P. The power is given by-

P = 1/f

The SI unit of power is dioptre. It is represented by D. Power of concave lens is

negative and power of convex lens is positive.