Question

Three mirrors, one plane, one concave and one convex are lying on a table. How can a person identify them without touching them?

Answer 1

Hint: A plane mirror consists of a flat surface with one of the sides reflecting. A concave mirror and a convex mirror are spherical mirrors with surfaces on opposite sides as the reflecting surfaces. We can also distinguish the mirror by the image formation.

Complete answer:
We are provided with three different types of mirrors. One plane, one concave and one convex mirror.A person can identify the three mirrors correctly without touching any of them. We can identify the mirrors just by looking at the given mirror. A plane mirror consists of a flat surface. It has one painted with silver and the other side is reflecting the surface.

A concave mirror is a spherical mirror. The outer (convex) surface of the mirror is painted with silver and the inner (concave) surface of the mirror is reflecting. A convex mirror is also a spherical mirror. However, the inner (concave) surface of the mirror is painted with silver and the outer (convex) surface of the mirror is reflecting. With these features of the three mirrors, we can easily identify the mirrors correctly.

Note: We can also identify the mirrors by distinguishing the image formed by each mirror. A plane mirror always forms a virtual and erect image of an object. The size of the image is always equal to the size of the object. A concave mirror always forms a real and inverted image of the object when it is placed beyond the focus of the concave mirror.Whereas, a convex mirror always forms a virtual and erect image but the image formed is diminished.