Image formation by plane mirrors and convex lenses

A plane (flat) mirror forms a virtual image, one that light only appears to come from: the image is upright, the same size as the object, and appears as far behind the mirror as the object is in front of it. A thin convex (converging) lens bends light rays so they come together at a focal point, and the image it forms depends on where the object is. When the object is farther from the lens than the focal length, the lens forms a real, upside-down image on the other side that can be projected onto a screen, which is how cameras, projectors, and the human eye work; the farther away the object, the smaller the image. When the object is closer than the focal length, the lens forms a virtual, upright, magnified image, which is how a magnifying glass works. The thin lens equation, 1/f = 1/d_o + 1/d_i, connects the focal length (f) to the object and image distances.

This explanation is AI-generated and can occasionally be wrong. 🚩 Report