Friday, June 20, 2008

Reflection of Light by 2E3 Siti Saiyidah Nafisah

I have learnt that reflection is the bouncing of light off a mirror. A plane mirror is a good reflector of light.

When a ray of light strikes the mirror at a right angle, it is reflected along the same path, called the normal. When a ray of light hits a plane mirror at an angle to the normal (called the angle of incidence), it is reflected at an equal angle but on the opposite side of the normal (angle of reflection). These two angles are always equal no matter how light rays strike the mirror. These are called The Law of Reflection.

In a plane mirror, the image is upright and of the same size as the object. In a plane mirror, the image lies as far behind the mirror as the object is in front of the mirror. Mirrors turn images around from left to right. Hence, in a plane mirror, an image is laterally inverted. An image that cannot be formed on a screen is called a virtual image. In a plane mirror, the image formed is always a virtual image.

There are two types of reflection- Regular reflection and Diffuse reflection.


Textbook Resource: Science Txtbk (pg119-121)

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