Sections

Section Summary

Section Summary

The angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence.
Plane mirrors and convex mirrors reflect virtual, erect images. Concave mirrors reflect light to form real, inverted images or virtual, erect images, depending on the location of the object.
Image distance, height, and other characteristics can be calculated using the lens/mirror equation and the magnification equation.

The index of refraction for a material is given by the speed of light in a vacuum divided by the speed of light in that material.
Snell’s law states the relationship between indices of refraction, the incident angle, and the angle of refraction.
The critical angle, $θ_{c}$ , determines whether total internal refraction can take place, and can be calculated according to $θ_{c} = s i n^{- 1} (\frac{n_{2}}{n_{1}})$ .

The characteristics of images formed by concave and convex lenses can be predicted using ray tracing. Characteristics include real versus virtual, inverted versus upright, and size.
The human eye and corrective lenses can be explained using geometric optics.
Characteristics of images formed by lenses can be calculated using the mirror/lens equation.