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Lecture

Concave Mirrors: Image Formation and Characteristics

Description

This lecture covers the image formation by a concave mirror when an object is approaching it from infinity along its axis, describing the nature, position, and size of the image in relation to the object during this movement. It also includes reminders about paraxial rays and the graphical construction of images using two rays. The slides illustrate the concepts with examples and provide a link to a demonstration video.

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Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Optics: Geometrical optics

Related concepts (14)

Paraxial approximation

In geometric optics, the paraxial approximation is a small-angle approximation used in Gaussian optics and ray tracing of light through an optical system (such as a lens). A paraxial ray is a ray which makes a small angle (θ) to the optical axis of the system, and lies close to the axis throughout the system. Generally, this allows three important approximations (for θ in radians) for calculation of the ray's path, namely: The paraxial approximation is used in Gaussian optics and first-order ray tracing.

Curved mirror

A curved mirror is a mirror with a curved reflecting surface. The surface may be either convex (bulging outward) or concave (recessed inward). Most curved mirrors have surfaces that are shaped like part of a sphere, but other shapes are sometimes used in optical devices. The most common non-spherical type are parabolic reflectors, found in optical devices such as reflecting telescopes that need to image distant objects, since spherical mirror systems, like spherical lenses, suffer from spherical aberration.

Ray (optics)

In optics, a ray is an idealized geometrical model of light or other electromagnetic radiation, obtained by choosing a curve that is perpendicular to the wavefronts of the actual light, and that points in the direction of energy flow. Rays are used to model the propagation of light through an optical system, by dividing the real light field up into discrete rays that can be computationally propagated through the system by the techniques of ray tracing. This allows even very complex optical systems to be analyzed mathematically or simulated by computer.

Ray transfer matrix analysis

Ray transfer matrix analysis (also known as ABCD matrix analysis) is a mathematical form for performing ray tracing calculations in sufficiently simple problems which can be solved considering only paraxial rays. Each optical element (surface, interface, mirror, or beam travel) is described by a 2×2 ray transfer matrix which operates on a vector describing an incoming light ray to calculate the outgoing ray. Multiplication of the successive matrices thus yields a concise ray transfer matrix describing the entire optical system.

Cardinal point (optics)

In Gaussian optics, the cardinal points consist of three pairs of points located on the optical axis of a rotationally symmetric, focal, optical system. These are the focal points, the principal points, and the nodal points. For ideal systems, the basic imaging properties such as image size, location, and orientation are completely determined by the locations of the cardinal points; in fact only four points are necessary: the focal points and either the principal or nodal points.

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