Concave vs.

Convex
Reflection
 What is Concave/vex

• Concave refers to a
surface that is indented
• Convex refers to a
surface that is bowed
out

• You can have both

concave and convex
mirrors and lenses
 Working With Rays

• We are going to turn out

the light so you can trace
what concave and convex
mirrors do to rays of light
• Follow the instructions on
the sheet you are getting
right now

Note - You are using the ray

box with 5 slits
 What did you find?

CONVEX CONCAVE
 What did you find?

CONVEX CONCAVE
 Concave Mirrors

• Concave mirrors are

indented mirrors that
reflect light to a FOCAL
point.

• The position of the focal

point from a concave
mirror is dependant on
how curved the mirror is.
 Focal Point Distance

• The distance of the focal point from the concave mirror

will be affected by the degree of curvature of the mirror
Sharper curve = Closer focal point
Gentler curve = Further focal point
 Concave Images

• If an object’s image is being reflected and the object it’s

self is outside of the focal point, the image appears to
be up side down & smaller
• If the object is between the
mirror and the focal point,
the image appears to be right
side up and bigger

• An object placed right on the

focal point has no image
 Demonstration Time!

• Lets use a concave mirror and fog machine to see if the

statements made on the previous slide hold true
 Convex Mirrors
• Convex mirrors are bowed outward and spread light
out when it is reflected
• Light reflected off of a convex mirror will never
reach a focal point
 Explain this Picture

Click on hyper link

 Why Smaller?

• The images in convex mirrors always appear to be

smaller than they actually are
• Can you explain why?
 Why… Surface Area
• On a flat mirror, an image is formed from light gathered
directly in front of it
• With a convex mirror, the light that forms the image is
gathered from a much larger area than the mirror its
self

Surface area is equal so the Much larger surface area so the image
image stays the same size appears to be smaller than it really is
 Obeying the Law
• Concave and Convex mirrors still obey the law of
reflection because the angle of reflection is still
equal to the angle of incidence

• The only difference is, because of the bend in the

mirror, the angle of incidence for one ray of light
will be different from the angle of incidence for the
next ray of light
Obeying the Law
 Your Task!!!
• You are being handed a simple
worksheet based on the
information that we covered
today
• Use your notes along with the
information found between
page 197 -199 in your textbook
to answer the questions
• We will be taking this up in a
few classes from now