A highly polished surface such as a mirror reflects most of the light falling on it. In our daily life we…
A highly polished surface such as a mirror reflects most of the light falling on it. In our daily life we use two types of mirrors — plane and spherical. The reflecting surface of a spherical mirrors may be curved inwards or outwards. In concave mirrors, reflection takes place from the inner surface, while in convex mirrors reflection takes place from the outer surface.
(a) Define the principal axis of a concave mirror. [1]
(b) A ray of light is incident on a concave mirror, parallel to its principal axis. If this ray after reflection from the mirror passes through the principal axis from a point at a distance of 10 cm from the pole of the mirror, find the radius of curvature of the mirror. [1]
(c) (i) An object is placed at a distance of 10 cm from the pole of a convex mirror of focal length 15 cm. Find the position of the image. [2]
Solution
(a) It is straight line passing through the pole and centre of curvature of a concave mirror.
(b) Radius of curvature, R = 20 cm
(c)(i) u = –10 cm, f = +15 cm
$\dfrac{1}{f}$ = $\dfrac{1}{v}$ + $\dfrac{1}{u} \dfrac{1}{v}$ = $\dfrac{1}{f}$ – $\dfrac{1}{u}$ = 1/15 – 1/-10
$\dfrac{1}{v}$ = 1/6
v = +6 cm