Data Analysis

The principle that the radius of a circle is normal to the tangent point is the basis of the 3rd

part of the experiment. By finding the point of intersection on the reflected rays, the focal length

and radius of curvature are determined given that the mirrors used to reflect the light are concave

and convex. Looking at the data obtained in using the concave mirror, the acquired percent error

is low which proves the accuracy of using intersecting light rays to determine its focal length and

radius of curvature. Its focal length of 6.1cm is a result of connecting the points drawn on the

reflection rays then measuring the distance from the point of intersection to where the concave

mirror is placed. To get the experimental radius of curvature, Eq. 1 seen below is used.

R=2 f Eq. 1

y x
2
Eq. 2
R= +
2 8y

The actual radius of curvature is calculated using Eq. 2, where x is the length of a chord and y is

the perpendicular distance from the chord to the arc. Resulting to an experimental and actual

value of 12.2cm and 11.88cm respectively, the percentage of error is found to be 2.69% only.

Summarizing this, a ray of light passes through a focal point as reflected when it travels parallel

to the principal axis.

 Part 4 tackles upon the principle of image and object distance which states that the focal

length depends on these two factors and is observed that the reflected image is inverted due to

their proportionality. Following that, the equation below is used to calculate the focal length.

1 1 1
= +
f p q

pq
f= Eq. 3
p +q

Given this, the focal length of trial 1 resulted to 9.33cm and is found to be increasing along with

the inversely proportional relationship of the object distance and image distance. This instance

can be visualized as the widening of the object distance while the image distance shortens.

Further proof of accuracy in using this method is the percentage of 1.93% difference between the

two.