1

SBA YY MM DD
10 20 10 20

Ridhi Parwani

Title: Laws of reflection

Aim: To investigate the laws of reflection.

Apparatus:
● A4 size paper
● Soft board
● Tape
● Plane mirror
● Pencil
● Four optical pins
● Set square
● Protractor
● Ruler

Procedure:
1. An A4 sized paper was placed on a soft board and the sides were taped to
prevent it from moving.
2. The mirror was placed in the middle of the paper. The surface was traced
of the plane mirror and the ends were labelled as AB.
3. On the side AB a perpendicular line through the point O was drawn.
4. A line such that the angle of incidence, i, is equal to 30° was drawn.
5. Pins P1 and P2 along the 30° line were placed.
6. The images P1 and P2 were looked in the mirror to view.
7. Pins P3 and P4 were placed such that the images of P1 and P2 appear
behind them.
8. A line was drawn through P3 and P4 such that it meets the line AB at point
O.
9. The angle of reflection was then recorded.

FOR TEACHERS ONLY

SKILLS ASSESSED M/M ORR A/I P/D
MARK OBTAINED
2
SBA YY MM DD
10 20 10 20

Ridhi Parwani

Drawing:

Results:

i/° 30 40 50 60 70
r/° 30 42 51 63 71

Sources of Error:
Measuring error- there is some uncertainty in reading the angle because the
angle to be measured will not land exactly on a line of the protractor scale.
Calibration error- there is some difference between the true angle and the
markings of the angle on the protractor.
Zero point error- the protractor must be lined up properly, in order to read
off the angle.

Conclusion:
It can be concluded that the image is always the same distance behind the mirror
as the object is in front of the mirror. The object and image consistently line up
along a similar normal line and the image is consistently upstanding and a similar

FOR TEACHERS ONLY

SKILLS ASSESSED M/M ORR A/I P/D
MARK OBTAINED
3
SBA YY MM DD
10 20 10 20

Ridhi Parwani

size as the object. It can also be concluded that the angle of incidence equals the
angle of reflection and can be measured from the normal to either the incident or
reflected ray. For this lab, pins were used as objects. Initially it started by placing
the pin object at an angle of incidence of 30°, and then the angle of reflection was
measured, which was the same. For some of them there were a plus or minus by
degree.

FOR TEACHERS ONLY

SKILLS ASSESSED M/M ORR A/I P/D
MARK OBTAINED