Question

The silvering on the back surface of a mirror can be done by:
(A) Silver
(B) Mercury
(C) Both
(D) None

Answer 1

Hint To answer this question we should know that a plane mirror is a mirror which has a flat reflective surface. The light rays that strike the plane mirror, the angle of reflection becomes equal to the angle of incidence. The angle of incidence is the angle which is defined as the angle between the incident ray and the surface normal. The normal is the imaginary line which is perpendicular to the surface.

Complete step by step answer
We should know that a plane mirror is made from a few mm thick glass plate. One of the surfaces of a glass plate is polished to a high degree of smoothness. This forms the front part of the mirror. And the other that is the back surface is silvered, which is painted with silver, mercury or some other material.
So, the silvering on the back surface of a mirror can be done by both.

Hence the correct answer is option C.

Note The images that are formed by the plane mirrors are virtual, upright, left-right reversed, the same distance from the mirror as the object’s distance, and is of the same size as the object. The plane mirror is a flat mirror that will reflect light and produce a virtual image without the interference of an inward or outward curve. These mirrors include common bathroom or hallway mirrors.