Grade 9 and 10 ScienceMr. MacMillan

Properties of Concave Mirrors

• A mirror whose reflecting surface curves inward

• When you look at objects in a concave mirror such as people, buildings or cars the images are distorted

Images in Concave Mirrors

Ray Diagrams

• Principal axis– A line that passes through the centre of

curvature, C, of the mirror and is normal to the centre of the mirror

• Focal point– The point on the principal axis through

which reflected rays pass when the incident rays are parallel to and near the principal axis

• Focal length– The distance between the vertex of a mirror

and the focal point; half the distance from the vertex to the centre of curvature

Mirror and Magnification

Example

• A convex surveillance mirror in a convenience store has a focal length of -0.40m. A customer, who is 1.7m tall, is standing 4.5 m in front of the mirror.1. Calculate the image distance2. Calculate the image height.

Properties of Convex Mirrors

• A mirror whose reflecting surface curves outward

• A convex mirror is a spherical mirror that has only a small centre region that gives images that are not distorted

Images of Convex Mirrors

Ray Diagrams