Experiment 402 Plane and Spherical mirrors (Analysis and Conclusion)

Analysis In our experiment, which is about Plane and spherical mirrors we mainly focused on reflection. Reflection is a copy of image through a mirror or any surface that light waves can bounced on. In uniform reflection, the surfaces which are reflected are parallel to the perpendicular or normal lines but in disperse reflection the reflecting lines are scattered and not in line with the orientation of the normal lines. In table 1 which is about the Laws of Reflection, we observed based on our gathered data and results that the angle of incidence is always equal to the reflected angle. This data obeys the law of reflection which states that any angle given by the incident angle would be always to the angle of reflection. And we could also add the fact that the incident ray would be on the same plane as the Reflected ray. In the second table which is about the number of images formed from two plane mirrors. We looked on our data and notice that as the angle increases the number of the observed images decreases. This happens because as the angle is getting larger the light which is reflected by the first mirror would bounce less to the other mirror compared if the angle is smaller. In that case, we could have a relationship that the observed images and the angle are inversely proportional. In the third table which is about the determination of Focal length and Radius, we observed that the intersection point of the light rays reflected by the mirrors is the focal point. Thus, the distance of the focal length would be equal to the distance of the focal point to the curvature of the mirror. We also know that twice of the focal length is the radius of the concavity of mirror. For part 4 table 4-6 of our experiment which is about the determination of focal length with varying object and image distance. We managed to know the focal length with the given three situations. First, in table 4 where the object’s distance is greater than the image distance we notice that the average focal length is much smaller than the average focal length in table 5 (which is the second situation) wherein the image distance is greater than the object’s distance. And lastly in the table6 where the image distance is equal to the object distance we observed that the focal length is same for all distance and we also notice that it is the median of the two tables. The possible errors that come out in our experiment could be from the measuring of focal length’s distance to the curvature. This could happen if

the materials used in measuring could not be accurate because meter stick is the assigned instrument in this experiment. I recommend that the future students who will perform this experiment should use a smaller ruler for accurate purposes.

Conclusion After our experiment about Plane and Spherical mirrors objectives are met. We are able to determine the number of image formed when plane mirrors are placed at a certain angle and observed that as the angle increases there would be less number of images reflected in the mirror. We are also able to determine and describe the image formed using a plane and spherical mirrors. In this experiment, we are able to determine and compute the focal length of the spherical mirror. Using the intersection of rays reflected by the mirror, we could calculate for the focal length by measuring the distance of the intersection point to the curvature of the mirror. We also relate that the radius of the circle is equal to the twice of focal length. In the first part of our experiment we prove our date to be correct based on the law of reflection which states that “The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence of a wave or stream of particles reflecting from a boundary, conventionally measured from the normal to the interface, is equal to the angle of reflection , measured from the same interface”. In our experiment we used the equation

I=

360 −1 ∅

images that can be formed with any angle

∅

where I is the number of .

With the theories given it is easier for us to perform the experiment. We are able to check if our data are correct. Like in the first part of the experiment, we know that the angle of incidence is always equal to the angle of reflection based on the law of reflection. We are also able to understand the theory in the process of performing the experiment. In our daily life, we always use the mirror in checking our self. If there are no mirrors probably it will be hard for us to check our self and thus it would be hard for us to have full potential of self confidence.