what is the relation between reflection of light and image of an object??

Dear Student

Suppose that a light bulb is placed in front of a concave mirror at a location somewhere behind the centre of curvature (C). The light bulb will emit light in a variety of directions, some of which will strike the mirror.

Each individual ray of light that strikes the mirror will reflect according to the law of reflection. Upon reflecting, the light will converge at a point. At the point where the light from the object converges, a replica, likeness or reproduction of the actual object is created. This replica is known as the image

Once the reflected light rays reach the image location, they begin to diverge. The point where all the reflected light rays converge is known as the image point. Not only is it the point where light rays converge, it is also the point where reflected light rays appear to an observer to be diverging from.

Regardless of the observer's location, the observer will see a ray of light passing through the real image location. To view the image, the observer must line her sight up with the image location in order to see the image via the reflected light ray.

The diagram below depicts several rays from the object reflecting from the mirror and converging at the image location. The reflected light rays then begin to diverge, with each one being capable of assisting an individual in viewing the image of the object.





If the light bulb is located at a different location, the same principles apply. The image location is the location where reflected light appears to diverge from. By determining the path that light from the bulb takes after reflecting from the mirror, the image location can be identified. The diagram below depicts this concept.





Regards