Plane and Spherical Mirrors

2015103117
PHY13L/B5
MfgE/3

1. DATA
There are 4 parts to this experiment. The first part of this experiment has 4 trials. Moreover, the angle of
incidence and the angle of reflection has the same values. In the second part, the observed number of images
is equal to the calculated number. In part 3, the values for Rexperimental and Ractual is 12cm for both convex and
concave. Thus, we had a 0% error. While in part 4, the average focal lengths are 9.95 cm, 10.0025 cm, and
9.9375 cm while the actual focal length is 10 cm and we had 0.501%, 0.025% and 0.62% error for table 4-
6 respectively.

2. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Initially, the laws of reflection were observed in the table I. A light ray was mirrored as the ray smitten one
face of the three surfaced mirror. Thus, the law of reflection states that the angle of incidence equals the
angle of reflection within the same plane. Next, in the second table, when there is an addition of angle
between plane mirrors, it was observed that the number of push pin images formed goes lower. It was seen
in the experiment that the angle between plane mirrors and the number of pin images formed has a
correlation with each other. This implicates that the number of images formed has an indirect correlation
with the angle between the mirrors. For the third table, the focal point was the point wherein the observed
reflected light rays intersect. However, we determined the focal length by measuring the extent from the
curvature of the mirror up to the focal point. In addition, to compute for the radius of the concavity of the
mirror, the focal length was doubled. As seen in our data, the radius of the concave and convex mirrors has
the same values which are equal to 12 cm. In the fourth-sixth table, it covers all about the determining of
the focal length with the varying object and image distance. When the distance of an image is longer than
the distance of an object, the focal length in this situation is maximal. While the focal length in the object
distance equal to and greater than the image distance, the focal length is almost the same and at lowest. In
accordance with the results, the image distance and the object distance has a correlation with each other. It
is because of the shorter the distance of the object, the longer the distance of the image. Hence, the object
distance is inversely proportional to the image distance. The errors for this experiment is minimal. The
possible source of error could be an inaccurate measurement of angle and number of images formed, the
intensity of light source is weak, and the wrong trace in the outline of the convex/concave mirror.

3. CONCLUSION
All of the objectives in this experiment were all achieved. Our group were able to quantify the images
formed when the plane mirrors are placed at a given angle in the data sheet, we were also able to find out
and describe the image found using a plane and spherical mirrors, and lastly, we are able to identify and
compute for the focal length of a spherical mirror.