FOUNDATION PHYSICS II

PHY 098

CHAPTER 23:
MIRROR AND LENSES
MAS FIZA MUSTAFA

mfiza@salam.uitm.edu.my
03-3258 4972
 Units of Chapter: Mirror and Lenses
23.1 Flat Mirrors
23.2 Images Formed by Concave Mirrors
23.3 Convex Mirrors and Sign Conventions
23.6 Thin Lenses
 Lesson Outcomes
At the end of the lesson students should be able to
• Describe wave fronts and rays

• State the law of reflection

• Describe and differentiate the properties of images produced by plane mirrors,

concave and convex mirrors.

• Apply the mirror equation in problem-solving questions and describe

properties of ray tracing

• Draw the images produced using ray tracing method

• Describe the image properties of convex and spherical mirrors

22.1 The Nature of Light

If a stone is dropped into a pond, circular waves emanate from

the point where it landed.

Rays, perpendicular to the wave

fronts, give the direction in
which the waves propagate.

As one moves farther from a point

wave source, the wave fronts
become more nearly flat.
23.1 Flat Mirrors: Reflection from a
smooth surface
The law of reflection
states that the angle of
incidence equals the
angle of reflection.

Note that incident ray, the normal and the reflected

ray all lie in the same plane.
Reflection from a smooth surface is called specular
reflection.

if the surface is rough, it is diffuse reflection.

When the surface of a road When the same road is dry,

is wet, giving rise to an glare is not observed.
intense glare.
Forming Images with a Plane Mirror

Light reflected from the flower and vase hits the mirror. Obeying
the law of reflection, it enters the eye.

The eye interprets the ray as having a straight-line

path, and sees the image behind the mirror.
Properties of Mirror Images Produced by Plane Mirrors:

• A mirror image is upright, but appears reversed right

to left.
• A mirror image appears to be the same distance
behind the mirror ( virtual) that the object is in front
of the mirror.

• A mirror image is the same size as the object.

Example: Reflection from flat mirrors.
Two flat mirrors are perpendicular to each other. An incoming beam
of light makes an angle of 15° with the first mirror as shown. What
angle will the outgoing beam make with the second mirror?
Example:
Two mirrors are placed at right angles. An incident ray of light
makes an angle of 30o with the x axis and reflects from the lower
mirror. Find the angle the outgoing ray makes with the y axis
after it reflects once from each mirror.
Spherical Mirrors
A spherical mirror has the shape of a section of a sphere.

If the outside is mirrored, it is

convex.
If the inside is mirrored, it is
concave.
Spherical mirrors have a central axis (a radius of
the sphere) and a center of curvature (the center
of the sphere).

Concave mirror Convex mirror

Focal point

Concave mirror Convex mirror

Parallel rays hitting a When reflecting parallel rays
spherical mirror come appear to have come from
together at the focal point. the focal point.

Distance between F and centre of mirror is called focal length.

We find that the focal length is
half the radius of curvature.
We have made the assumption here that the rays do not
hit the mirror very far from the principal axis.

If they do, the image is blurred; this is called spherical

aberration, and can be remedied by using a parabolic
mirror instead.
When the Hubble Space
Telescope was first
launched, its optics were
marred by spherical
aberration.

This was fixed with

corrective optics.
23.2 Images Formed by Concave Mirror: Ray Tracing and
the Mirror Equation
We use three principal rays in finding the image produced by a
concave mirror.

The parallel ray (P ray)

reflects through the focal
point.

The focal ray (F ray)

reflects parallel to the
axis.

The center-of-curvature ray (C ray) reflects back along its

incoming path.
There are different results depending on where
the object is placed.
1. A ray parallel to the axis; after reflection it passes
through the focal point.

2. A ray through the focal point; after reflection it is

parallel to the axis.

3. A ray perpendicular to the mirror; it reflects back on

itself.
Image is real,
inverted and
larger.
Example: Use a ray diagram to find the location, size and orientation
of the image formed by a concave mirror when the object is
between the mirror and the focal point.

P ray : Starts parallel to the axis, then reflects through the focal point.

F ray :Does not go through the focal point. Instead, it starts on a

line that extends back to the focal point, then reflects parallel to
the axis.
C ray :Starts at the top of the object, Exercise!!!
contacts the mirror, then reflects back Object at C
through the C.
23.3 Convex Mirrors and Sign Conventions
This image shows how these three rays are used to find the image
formed by a convex mirror.

Refer page 797, Serway Vuille 9th Edition

for more ray diagrams

The image is located where the projections of the three rays

cross.
The image is always virtual, upright, and smaller.
Geometrically, we can derive an equation that relates the
object distance, image distance, and focal length of the
mirror.

do is the distance from the mirror to the object di is

the distance from the mirror to the image f is the
focal length.
We can also find the magnification:
Sign convention for mirror
Positive Negative

do Real object Virtual object

di Real image Virtual image

hi Upright Inverted

f and r Concave mirror Convex mirror

M Image upright Image inverted

James Walker, 4th Edition
Example: After leaving some presents under the tree, Santa notices
his image in a shiny, spherical Christmas ornament. The ornament
is 8.50 cm in diameter and 1.10 m away from Santa. Curious to
know the location and size of his image, Santa consults a book on
physics, what results should he obtain, assuming his height is 1.75
m?
Example: Image in a concave mirror.
A 1.50-cm-high diamond ring is placed 20.0 cm from a concave mirror
with radius of curvature 30.0 cm. Determine
(a) the position of the image

(b) its size.

23-6 Thin Lenses

Lenses are used to focus light and form images. There are a variety of possible
types; we will consider only the symmetric ones, the double concave and the
double convex.

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If we think of a convex lens as consisting of prisms, we can see how light going
through it converges at a focal point (assuming the lens is properly shaped).

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A concave lens can also be modeled by prisms:

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 Ray Tracing for Lenses

The three principal rays for lenses are similar to those for mirrors:
• The P ray—or parallel ray—approaches the lens parallel to its axis.
• The F ray is drawn toward (concave) or through (convex) the focal point.
• The midpoint ray (M ray) goes through the middle of the lens. Assuming the lens
is thin enough, it will not be deflected. This is the thin-lens approximation.

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As with mirrors, we use these principal rays to locate the image:

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The convex lens forms different image types depending on
where the object is located with respect to the focal point:

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Taken from James S.Walker, PEARSON
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 The Thin-Lens Equation

We derive the thin-lens equation

in the same way we did the
mirror equation, using these
diagrams:

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This gives us the thin-lens approximation, as well as the
magnification:

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Sign conventions for thin lenses:

Taken from James S.Walker, PEARSON

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Taken from James S.Walker, PEARSON
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Taken from James S.Walker, PEARSON
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 Dispersion and the Rainbow

The index of refraction varies slightly with the frequency of light; in general,
the higher the frequency, the higher the index of refraction.

This means that refracted light is

“spread out” in a rainbow of colors; this
phenomenon is known as dispersion.

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 Dispersion and the Rainbow

Rainbows are created by the dispersion of light and total internal

reflection as it refracts in a rain drop.

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 Dispersion and the Rainbow

As the drop falls, all the colors of the rainbow arrive at the eye.

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Sometimes a faint secondary arc can be seen.

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A concave mirror is curved inward, The angle of incidence equals the
and a convex one outward. angle of reflection.

Focal length
Mirror equation

concave mirror
Summary
convex mirror
Magnification

The image formed by a plane mirror is:

• upright, but appears reversed left to right;
• same distance as the object
• the same size as the object.