Reflection and Mirrors – Basic Principles
How it works
Reflection describes the bouncing back of light rays from a surface. In a plane mirror, the law of reflection applies: the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection are equal in size, each measured from the normal to the surface. In a plane mirror, the mirror image appears seemingly behind the mirror. There are different types of mirrors, e.g. plane, concave and convex mirrors. Reflection is important for seeing objects, for optical devices and for everyday applications such as retroreflectors or traffic mirrors.
When a light ray hits a plane mirror, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection (both are measured from the normal).
An example
A light ray strikes a plane mirror with an angle of incidence of 30°. How large is the angle of reflection?
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50 Exercises
To the learning unit →Own explanation and own practice exercises by AmyMath. Subject reference framework: Physics. The topic assignment may vary by federal state.