Types and Parts of Spherical Mirror | Concave and Convex Mirror
January 07, 2021
Spherical Mirrors
It's a mirror with a curved reflecting surface. These mirrors are part of hollow glass spheres. It can be classified into two types
- Convex mirror
- Concave mirror
Convex Mirror
Those spherical mirrors whose reflecting surface is curved outward, are called Convex Mirror.
Concave Mirror
Those spherical mirrors whose reflecting surface is curved inwards, are called Concave Mirror.
Parts of Spherical Mirrors
Center of Curvature (C)
This is the center of the hollow glass spheres of which mirror was a part.
Aperture (MN)
It's the effective diameter of spherical mirror.
Pole (P)
It's the center of spherical mirror.
Principal Axis
It's the line joining the Pole & Center of Curvature.
Radius of Curvature (R)
It's the distance between Pole and Center of Curvature.
Focus (F)
It's the point on principal axis on which light rays parallel to principal axis meet or appears to meet after reflection.
Focal length (f)
The distance between Pole and Focus is termed as Focal length.
Mathematically:- f = R/2