Focal Point of Spherical Mirrors Located at half of the mirrors radius Point where all parallel rays of light will focus
Concave Mirrors (Object outside of focal length) Parallel incident ray reflects through focal point Incident ray through focal point reflects parallel to normal Incident ray through center of sphere reflects back in same direction Image is real, smaller, and inverted
Concave Mirrors (Object inside of focal length) Parallel incident ray reflects through focal point Incident ray from focal point reflects parallel to normal Incident ray from center of sphere reflects back to center of sphere Image is virtual, larger, and upright
Convex Mirrors Parallel incident ray reflects through focal point Incident ray through focal point reflects parallel to normal Incident ray through center of sphere reflects back in same direction Image is virtual, smaller and upright when object is near or far
Magnification is a ratio of heights of the object and the image Using similar triangles this ratio is the same as the image and the object distances (bases of the triangles) Image size Magnification is 0≤M ≤ 1 for images smaller than objects Magnification is ≥|1| for images larger than objects Sign convention Positive for upright images Negative for inverted images