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## Reflection of Light What happens when you look in a mirror? During the daytime, sunlight reflects off our body in all directions, making us visible. When we stand in front of a mirror, a parallel beam reflected from our body falls on a mirror, the reflected beam of light is also parallel and reg...

## Reflection of Light What happens when you look in a mirror? During the daytime, sunlight reflects off our body in all directions, making us visible. When we stand in front of a mirror, a parallel beam reflected from our body falls on a mirror, the reflected beam of light is also parallel and regular, streaming back in straight lines into our eyes. This is how we see exact copies of ourselves in the mirror. ### Image Formed by a Plane Mirror 1. A plane mirror forms an upright, virtual image. It is not upside down compared to the object. The image on a plane mirror is called a **virtual image** because the rays of the light do not actually come from where the image seems to be. For example, the virtual image at the mirror appear to be behind the mirror. 2. The image is of the same size as that of the object. 3. The distance of the image formed on the mirror is equal to the distance of the object from the mirror. 1. The image formed on the plane mirror appears to be behind the mirror. It is a **virtual image**. 2. The image formed on the plane mirror is always upright, i.e. the top and bottom of the image match the top and bottom of the object. Therefore, image formed on the mirror is an erect image. 3. The size the image is equal to the size of the object (candle). ### Words Related to Laws of Reflection | Term | Description | |---|---| | Incident Ray | The ray of light which strikes the reflecting surface. | | Reflected Ray | After striking a smooth surface, the ray of light that bounces off and moves away from the surface is known as reflected ray. | | Point of incidence | Point of incident refers to the point on the surface where the incident ray strikes the surface. | | Normal | An imaginary line perpendicular to the surface at the point of incidence | | Angle of Incidence | The angle between an incident ray on a surface and the normal | ### Activity 16.3 **Materials required:** Plane mirror, a lit candle **Method:** Take a plane mirror and place it vertically on a table. Place a candle in front of the mirror and locate its image. Move the candle towards the mirror and observe the image formed on the mirror. Move the candle away from the mirror and again observe the image. **Observation and Conclusion:** If the candle is moved towards or away from the mirror, the image also seems to move the same manner. So the distance of