Sign Convention for Mirrors

➢Object is always placed to the left of mirror

➢All distances are measured from the pole of the mirror.
➢ Distances measured in the direction of the incident ray are
positive and the distances measured in the direction opposite
to that of the incident rays are negative.
i
B
Against the direction of incident light
-ve distance
object In the direction of incident light
+ve distance
A
Principal axis C F P
➢Distances measured along y-axis above the principal axis are
positive and that measured along y-axis below the principal axis
are negative.
Distance measured upwards
from the principal axis
+ve distance
B

object
A
Principal axis C F P

Distance measured downwards

from the principal axis
-ve distance
 Sign Convention for Mirrors

Object is always placed

to the left of the mirror Against the direction
of incident light Distance measured upwards
-ve distance from the principal axis
+ve distance

C P
F
Distance measured In the direction of incident light
downwards from the +ve distance
principal axis
-ve distance
 The mirror formula is:
1 1 1
= +
f u v
Where, u= Object distance
v= Image distance
f= Focal length
 ℎ𝑒𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑒 (ℎi) −𝐼𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (−𝑣)
𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑚 = =
ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 (ℎo) 𝑂𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑢)