Spherical Mirrors

Table of Contents

• Curved Mirrors
• Spherical Mirrors
• Terms Related to Spherical Mirrors
• What’s Next?

In the previous segment, we learnt about Ray diagrams involving a plane mirror. In this segment, let us understand about spherical mirrors.

What are Curved mirrors?

Curved mirrors are mirrors whose reflecting surface is either curved inwards or outwards. For example, the surfaces of a spoon.

What are Spherical mirrors?

• Spherical mirrors are mirrors whose reflecting surface is a part of a sphere.
• The reflecting surface can be either curved inwards or curved outwards.
• The mirror whose reflecting surface is curved inwards is known as a Concave mirror.

Concave mirror

• The mirror whose reflecting surface is curved outwards is known as a Convex mirror.

Convex mirror

Terms related to spherical mirrors

1. Pole: The centre of the reflecting surface of a spherical mirror is called the pole. It is

represented by the point ‘P’.

Pole

1. Centre of curvature: The centre of the sphere of which the spherical mirror is a part is

known as the centre of curvature. It is denoted by the point ‘C’.