A plane mirror is a mirror with a planar reflective surface. For light rays striking a plane mirror, the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence. Thus a collimated beam of light does not spread out after reflection from a plane mirror, except for diffraction effects. A mirror, reflecting a vase. ... Something is called planar if it is made up of flat planes, or pertaining to planes. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In optics, a ray is an idealized narrow beam of light. ... Look up reflection in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Collimated light is light whose rays are parallel. ... Look up reflection in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The intensity pattern formed on a screen by diffraction from a square aperture Diffraction refers to various phenomena associated with wave propagation, such as the bending, spreading and interference of waves passing by an object or aperture that disrupts the wave. ...

Images

A plane mirror makes images of objects in front of it; these images appear to be behind the plane in which the mirror lies. A straight line drawn from part of an object to the corresponding part of its image makes a right angle with, and is bisected by, the surface of the plane mirror. The image formed by a plane mirror is always virtual (meaning that the light rays do not actually come from the image), upright, and of the same size as the object. Top: The formation of a virtual image using a concave lens. ...

Relation to curved mirrors

Mathematically, a plane mirror can be considered to be the limit of either a concave or a convex spherical curved mirror as the radius, and thus also the focal length, of the spherical mirror become very large. Wikibooks Calculus has a page on the topic of Limits In mathematics, the concept of a limit is used to describe the behavior of a function as its argument either gets close to some point, or as it becomes arbitrarily large; or the behavior of a sequences elements, as... Look up Concave in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up convex in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see sphere (disambiguation). ... Reflections in a spherical 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. ...