Concave and Convex Mirrors

The objective of this experiment is to observe the properties of visual images formed by concave and convex mirrors.

Procedure:

See Physics 4C Lab Manual (Martin Sydney Mason), Experiment 9.

Data and Observations

Convex Mirror

Concave Mirror

Analysis and Conclusion

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, no measurements were made on object distance, object height, image distance, and image height. Therefore the focal points and magnification for each mirror cannot be calculated. However, by observing the properties of inverted images, it can be shown that the focal point for a concave mirror is in front of the surface (images are inverted when the object distance is greater than the focal length) and that the focal point for a convex mirror is behind the surface, i.e. the image will never be inverted.