Question

Mention the uses of concave mirrors.

Answer 1

Hint: A concave mirror is also known as a type of spherical mirror in which the reflecting surface is actually the inner curved surface of the sphere, i.e. in this type of mirror the reflecting surface looks far from the incident light source. Because of concave mirror shape, the incident light is reflected inwards, thus they are also called converging mirrors and they are used for focusing light in someplace.

Complete answer:
A concave mirror is used in the aircraft landing to guide the airplane on its runway, it is used as a torch to reflect the light rays. It is used as a head mirror by ENT’s to get a focused light on the patient’s ears, nose, or tongue. It is used in ophthalmoscope the doctors look through the concave mirror and light rays are incident on the patient’s eyes making it easy for the doctor to get a clear vision of the pupil. It is used in headlights so that the light rays after reflecting on the mirror reach a long way and that is parallel beams of light with high intensity which makes driving easy.

Note:
Both the laws of reflection are valid at every point on the curved surface. The normal is drawn along the radius of the lens. The convergence of the rays after reflection is because the normal angle and the reflecting surface differ at each point in the mirror. There is a formation of different types of the image in a concave mirror. It mainly depends on the distance between the object and the mirror. Concave mirrors form both real and virtual images. When the concave mirror is placed very close to an object, a virtual and a magnified image is obtained and if we increase the distance between the object and the mirror, the vertical size of the image reduces, and real images are formed which can be projected on the screen. The focal point and the center of curvature of the concave mirror lie in front of the mirror.