Experiment 8: Concave and Convex Mirrors

Purpose:

       The purpose of this experiment is to study the characteristics of the image created on a concave and convex mirror

Experiment:

Convex Mirror

Image on convex mirror from far distance

Image on convex mirror from small distance

Characteristics of image formed on a convex mirror:
1a. Image appears smaller than the object
  b. Image is upright
  c. Image distance seems to be larger than the object distance

2. When moved closer, image still has the same characteristics as above.

3. As the object gets farther away from the mirror, the image size becomes a lot smaller.

Light Ray Diagram for Convex Mirror

d₀ = 5.5cm

d_i = 1.9cm

h₀ = 2.2cm

h_i = 0.7cm

M = h_i/h₀ = 0.32

Concave Mirror

Image on concave mirror from far distance

Image on concave mirror from small distance

Characteristics of image formed by concave mirror:
1a. The image appears larger than the object
  b. The image is upright
  c. The image distance is smaller than the object distance

2. As the object moves farther, the image appears smaller than the object and it becomes inverted.

Light Ray Diagram for Concave Mirror

d₀ = 11.6cm

d_i = 3.3cm

h₀ = 2.3cm

h_i = 0.6cm

M = h_i/h₀ = 0.26

Summary:
Image formed by convex mirror is upright and smaller, while the image formed by concave mirror depends on the position of the object. If the object is in front of the focus point, the image is inverted and smaller than the object. If the object is behind the focus point, the image is upright and larger than the object.