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Spherical Mirror Notes - HTML

The document outlines the sign convention for reflection by spherical mirrors, emphasizing the new Cartesian sign convention where distances are measured from the pole of the mirror. It includes key formulas such as the relationship between radius of curvature and focal length, the mirror formula, and the concept of magnification. Additionally, it specifies the sign conventions and characteristics for both concave and convex mirrors regarding object and image distances.

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5 views3 pages

Spherical Mirror Notes - HTML

The document outlines the sign convention for reflection by spherical mirrors, emphasizing the new Cartesian sign convention where distances are measured from the pole of the mirror. It includes key formulas such as the relationship between radius of curvature and focal length, the mirror formula, and the concept of magnification. Additionally, it specifies the sign conventions and characteristics for both concave and convex mirrors regarding object and image distances.

Uploaded by

kingdeeputhakur9
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Sign convention for reflection by Spherical Mirror

While dealing with the reflection of light by spherical mirrors, we follow a set of sign-convention called the
new Cartesian sign convention. In this convention – The pole(P) is taken as the origin.
★ The object is placed to the left of the mirror.
★ All distances parallel to the principal axis are measured from the pole of the mirror.
★ All the distances measured to the right of the origin (along +x axis) are taken as positive while those
measured to the left of the origin (along -x axis) are taken as negative.
★ Distance measured perpendicular to and above the principle axis are taken as positive.
Distance measured perpendicular to and below the principle axis are taken as negative.

Concave mirror Convex mirror

Remember

Concave mirror

Formulae related to spherical mirror


Relationship between radius of curvature (R) and focal length (f)
The focal length of a spherical mirror is equal to half of its radius of curvature.
f=R/2

Mirror formula
The distance of the object from its pole is called the object distance(u).
The distance of the image from its pole is called the image distance(v).
The mirror formula relates the object distance(u), image distance(v), and focal length(f) of a spherical
mirror.
This formula applies to both concave and convex mirrors.

1/v + 1/u = 1/f

Magnification (m)
The ratio of height of image (h₂) to the height of object (h₁) is called magnification.

m = h₂ / h₁

The magnification (m) is also related to the object distance (u) and image distance (v).

m = h₂ / h₁ = – v / u

Also, magnification can be further expressed as,

m = f / (f – u) = (f – v) / f

Magnification
↓ has ↓
sign (+ or –) Magnitude, |m|
↓ ↓

Represents Represents
nature of image size of image
↓ ↓

Positive Negative |m| < 1 |m| = 1 |m| > 1


↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
Virtual, Real, Diminished Same size Magnified
erect inverted image image image

( Concept of magnification )

Remember

Concave mirror
Object distance, u = always positive
Image distance, v = positive, when object placed between P and F (virtual & erect image)
Image distance, v = negative, all other possible cases (real and inverted image)
f = negative , R = negative

Convex mirror
Object distance, u = always negative.
Image distance, v = always positive (virtual & erect)
f = positive, R = positive
Image is always diminished

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