Light Rays and Mirrors Lab

Key Ideas “Seeing” involves light rays coming from a source to our eyes. Our eyes have no capacity to reach out and capture a sighting. If light rays are coming directly from the source to our eyes, we see the source itself. Most of the time we don’t see light from the source directly. We see the fraction of light rays that bounce off the source then come to our eyes.

Electromagnetic Spectrum

Questions What do mirrors do? How do they work? How do we see reflections of other things and ourselves in a mirror?

What do the patterns reveal? Is there a pattern between the incoming light and the outgoing light?

Light Rays Nothing is ever seen in a mirror that is behind the plane of the mirror The angle at which light rays strike a mirror always equals the angle at which they leave the mirror

Why does the image appear as though it is located through and behind the mirror? Our eye-brain system has no way of determining that light has “turned a corner,” which is why we see images as though they are located through or behind the mirror