2. PLANE MIRROR REFLECTION

3. Law of Reflection – the angle of the incident light ray is equal to the angle of the reflected light ray.

4. When you look in the mirror, you see an image on the other side. How does this work exactly?

5. Here is a candle in front of a mirror, where is the image formed?

6. Start with the top of the candle, here are just a few of the light rays emitted from a point at the top of the candle that hit the mirror. There are in fact many more.

7. According to the law of reflection, all of these light rays will reflect off the surface of the mirror at the same angle they struck the mirror. For clarity, I drew all of the reflected light rays blue.

8. Look at just the reflected light rays. If we knew nothing of the mirror being in the way, it would seem as though all of those light rays were being emanated from a single spot behind the mirror. This is where the image of the tip of the candle will be.

9. Lets do the same thing to locate the image of the base of the candle.

10. Here are some light rays that come from the base of the candle.

11. That reflect off the mirror at the same angle as they struck the mirror.

12. That appear to all have come from the same spot behind the mirror.

13. This is where the image of the base of the candle is.

14. As I am sure you can imagine, the location of the image of every spot on the candle can be determined this way, but just looking at what we have so far, we can extrapolate the rest.

15. object image As I am sure you can image, the location of the image of every spot on the candle can be determined this way, but just looking at what we have so far, we can extrapolate the rest.

16. The image formed by a plane mirror is always formed behind the mirror, the same distance from the mirror as the object itself and the same size. object image dodo didi soso sisi

17. object image The only difference is that the image in the mirror is flipped from front to back. Since the image is on the other side of the mirror, it must flip from front to back to continue facing the mirror.

18. That is why the image in the mirror appears to be left right reversed. As the girl raises her right hand, the image raises its left hand.

19. Text will also appear reversed in the mirror. Which of the following texts do you think is the mirror image of the work physics?