Reflection

Reflection of Light

Note: Both the angle of incident and angle of

reflection must be measured from the normal.

Type of Mirror

Laws of Reflection
1. The angle of incidence is equal to the
angle of reflection; the ray leaves the
surface at the same angle as it arrives.
2. The incident ray, the reflected ray and
the normal all lie in the same plane; all
three could be drawn on the same flat piece
of paper

Plane Mirror
Images in plane mirrors
1. Figure to the left shows how, by reflecting
light, a plane mirror forms an image of a
point source of light such as a small light
bulb.
2. The image forms in a mirror is
a. Upright
b. Virtual
c. Laterally inverted
d. Same size as the object

Steps to draw a ray diagram for an image in a

plane mirror
1. Draw the virtual image.
2. Draw 2 reflected rays, one from the top of the
image to the top of the eye and the other one
form the top of the image from the bottom of
the eye.
3. Draw the respective incident rays for the
reflected rays you draw in step 2.

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Reflection
Curved mirrors
1.

A curve is part of a circle. Therefore

a. the centre of the circle will also be the
centre of the curve and is called the
centre of curvature, and
b. the radius of the circle will be equal to the
radius of the curve, called the curvature
radius.

Important Terms

Finding the Position and Size of the Image

Any two rays are sufficient to fix the position and size of
the image. Look for the point where the rays cross after
reflection from the mirror. The interception of the two
rays is the focus of the ray.

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Example

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Rules in drawing ray diagram

Concave Mirror

Reflection

The ray of light through C. This is reflected The ray of light parallel to the principal axis. The ray of light through F. This is reflected
back through C.
This is reflected through F.
parallel to the principal axis.
Convex Mirror

A ray towards C is reflected back along its own

path.

A ray parallel to the principal axis is reflected as

if it came from F.

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A ray towards F is reflected parallel to the

principal axis.

Reflection
The Ray Diagram and the Types of Image
Convex Mirror
The image formed by a convex mirror is always virtual, upright and smaller than the object.
Concave Mirror
The characteristic of the image formed by the concave mirror depends on the position of the object.

Applications of Mirror
Plane mirror is used in
1. Periscope
2. Telescope
3. Optical Testing
4. Anti-parallax Mirror

Concave mirror is used in

1. Projector
2. Torch Light
3. Make-up Mirror
4. Telescope
5. Dentist Mirror

Advantageous of using a concave mirror

1. It can produce a magnified image.
2. The reflected light become parallel if the
light source is located at the principle
focus of the mirror
3. At certain condition, the image produced
is real. This allow the image to be
projected on a screen.

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Concave mirror is used in

1. Blind Corner Mirror
2. Wide view mirror in a shop
3. Wide side-view mirror of a car

Advantageous of Using Convex Mirror

1. Convex mirrors produce wider view
2. The image produce is upright

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Refraction
1. Refraction is the bending of a light ray at the boundary of
two medium as the light ray propagates from a medium to
another with difference optical density.
2. Light passes into an optically denser medium will bend
towards the normal; light passes into an optically less
dense medium will bend away from the normal.
Laws of Refraction
1. The incident and refracted rays are on opposite sides of
the normal at the point of incidence, and all three lie in the
same plane.
2. The value of

sin i
is constant for light passing from one
sin r

given medium into another. This is known as Snell's law.

Refractive Index (n)

refractive index =

In symbol,

speed of light in vacuum

speed of light in medium

c
v

sin i
sin r

i = angle of inceident
r = angle of refraction

D
d

D = real depth
d = apparent depth

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Total Internal Reflection

Total Internal Reflection and Critical Angle

1. Total internal reflection is the reflection of light at the
boundary of 2 medium where the angle of incident
exceeds the critical angle of the medium.
2. The critical angle is the angle of incident in an optically
denser medium for which the angle of refraction is 90.
Requirements for Total Internal Reflection to occur.
1. The light ray must propagate from an optically denser
medium to an optically less dense medium.
2. The angle of incident must exceed the critical angle.
Application of Total Internal Reflection
Binocular

Total Internal Reflection and

Refractive Index

Phenomena Related to Total Internal

Reflection
1. Mirage
2. Rain Bow

Cat Eye Reflector

Optical Fibre

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Diamond

Periscope

Lenses
Types of Lenses
Convex lens/
Converging lens/
Positive lens

Principle Focus and Focal Length

1. The principle focus (F) of a lens is the point on
the priciple axis to which all rays originally
parallel and close to the axis converge, or from
which they diverge, after passing through the lens.
2. The focal length of a lens is the distance between
the optical centre an the principle focus.

Concave lens/
Diverging lens/
Negative lens

Power of a Lens
The power of a lens is defined as the
reciprocal of the focal length in unit meter.

1
f

Linear magnification,

v hi
m
u ho

The Lens Equation

1 1 1

u v f
Conventional symbol
positif
u
Real object
v
Real image
f
Convex lens

negatif
Virtual object
Virtual image
Concave lens

Characteristics of the Images

(The characteristics of image formed by a convex lens

depends on the distance of object.)

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(Image formed by a convex lens is

always virtual, upright and smaller)

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The Ray Diagram

Convex Lens

Light 4

A light ray passes through the optical centre of A light ray parallel to the principle axis of the A light ray passes through principle focus will
the lens will not be refracted.
lens will be refracted passes through the be refracted parallel to the principle axis.
principle focus.
Concave Lens

A light ray passes through the optical centre of

the lens will not be refracted.

A light ray parallel to the principle axis will be

refracted away from the principle focus

A light ray moving towards the optical centre

will be refracted parallel to the principle axis.

1. As with a curved mirror, the position and size of an image can be found by drawing a ray diagram.
2. Any two of the following three rays are sufficient to fix the position and size of the image:
3. The ray diagrams of concave lens and convex lens, and the natures of its image is shown in the table next page.

The projector

Light 5

Bulb
1. Bulb with high brightness is used.
2. The bulb must be placed at the
centre of curvature of the concave
mirror.

Condenser
1. The condenser consists of two
Plano-convex lenses.
2. The function of the condenser is
to focus all the light that brightens
the whole slide.
3. It also acts as a heat insulator to
stop heat from the bulb so it does
not spoil the slide.

Projector Lens
1. The projector lens projects the
image on the screen that is placed
a few meters away.
2. It can be adjusted to focus a sharp
image.

Concave mirror
1. The function of the concave mirror
is to reflect and focus light that
shines on it to the direction of the
condenser.
2. This is to increase the brightness
of the image.
Slide
1. The slide acts as the object.
2. It is located at a distance between
f and 2f from the projector lens so
that the image produced is real
and magnified.
3. It is purposely placed upside down
so that the image forms on the
screen looks upright.

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Image
The image produced is
real (it form on a screen)
magnified
inverted (Since the slide is
placed upside down, hence the
image looks upright)

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Compound Microscope

Light 5

Magnification power
= Power of objective lens x Power of
eyepiece

m = mo x me

Image of objective lens

1. Real
2. Inverted
3. Magnified
4. Place between the principle
focus and optical centre of the
eyepiece

Eyepiece
1. The power of the eyepiece is
lower than the power of
objective lens.

Object:
1. The object must be placed in
between the F and 2F of the
objective lens.
2. This is to produce a real and
magnified image.

Image of the eyepiece

1. Virtual
2. Inverted
3. Magnified

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Distance between the 2 lenses

Distance between the 2 lenses > fo + fe

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Light 5

Astronomical Telescope
Magnification

Focal length of
objective lens

fo
m
fe

Focal length of
eyepiece

Eyepiece
1. The power of the eyepiece is
higher than the power of
objective lens.
2. This is to produce a greater
magnification to the image.

Image of the Objective Lens

Image of objective lens es
1. Real
2. Inverted
3. Smaller
The image of the objective lens acts as
the object of the eyepiece

Object:
The object is at infinity.
Therefore, the light rays is
almost parallel when
reaching the eye lens, and
hence form an image at the
principle focus (Fo)

Distance between the 2 lenses

= Focal length of the objective lens
+ Focal length of the eyepiece
= fo + fe

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Image of the Eyepiece

The image produced is
1. real (it form on a screen)
2. magnified
3. inverted (Since the slide
is placed upside down,
hence the image looks
upright)

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