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A convex mirror diagram showing the focus, focal length, centre of curvature, principal axis, etc. A convex mirror or diverging mirror is a curved mirror in which the reflective surface bulges towards the light source. [1] Convex mirrors reflect light outwards, therefore they are not used to focus light.
Curvature radius of lens/mirror r, R: m [L] Focal length f: m ... −1: Lateral magnification m = ... r = curvature radius of mirror Spherical mirror equation
For people looking at the mirror, the object A is apparently located at the position of A' although it does not physically exist there. The magnification of the virtual image formed by the plane mirror is 1. Top: The formation of a virtual image using a diverging lens. Bottom: The formation of a virtual image using a convex mirror.
The focal point F and focal length f of a positive (convex) lens, a negative (concave) lens, a concave mirror, and a convex mirror. The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light; it is the inverse of the system's optical power.
Similarly to curved mirrors, thin lenses follow a simple equation that determines the location of the images given a particular focal length and object distance (): + = where is the distance associated with the image and is considered by convention to be negative if on the same side of the lens as the object and positive if on the opposite side ...
This beam can be propagated through an optical system with a given ray transfer matrix by using the equation [further explanation needed]: [] = [] [], where k is a normalization constant chosen to keep the second component of the ray vector equal to 1.
Optical magnification is the ratio between the apparent size of an object (or its size in an image) and its true size, and thus it is a dimensionless number. Optical magnification is sometimes referred to as "power" (for example "10× power"), although this can lead to confusion with optical power.
Thus, its main application in optics is to solve the problem, "Find the point on a spherical convex mirror at which a ray of light coming from a given point must strike in order to be reflected to another point." This leads to an equation of the fourth degree. [2] [1] ( Alhazen himself never used this algebraic rewriting of the problem)