Concept explainers
Whether the plane mirror really invert the image left and right but not up and down
Answer to Problem 1QAP
The image formed by a plane mirror is reversed back to front
Explanation of Solution
Introduction:
A plane mirror is a flat reflecting surface where the angle of reflection equals the angle of incident. The image formed by a plane mirror is said to be a virtual image. That means the image formed by the plane mirror is behind the mirror. The light rays from the object don't pass through the mirror. But when we trace the reflected rays backward as they would meet each other the image from a mirror plane is behind the mirror and the distances of the object and the image to the mirror are same in magnitude.
The plane mirror really does not invert the image left and right or up and down. What it really does is reversing the image of the object back to front. For example, if you sit in front of a plane mirror wearing a hat and with a book in your right hand, the hat is still in the top of the head in the mirror image and in reality, the book is in the same side both in reality and in the mirror image. What actually happened is the image has been flipped front to back three-dimensionally. Which means if you are facing south your image is facing the north.
Conclusion:
The image formed by a plane mirror is reversed back to front
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Chapter 24 Solutions
COLLEGE PHYSICS,VOLUME 1
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- The image produced by a converging lens is upside down. Our eyes have converging lenses. Does this mean the images we see are upside down on our retinas? Explain.arrow_forwardWhen 2 mirrors are parallel to each other why we can see infinite images?arrow_forwardSuppose you would like to start a fire by focusing sunlight onto apiece of paper. In Conceptual Example 26-4 we saw that a concavemirror would be better than a convex mirror for this purpose. At whatdistance from the mirror should the paper be held for best results?arrow_forward
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