Uses of Curved mirrors

1. Uses of Curved mirrors

2. Concave • Most technology that involves converging mirrors rely on their ability to focus the incoming light at a single point.

3. Telescope • Light enters the telescope in parallel rays. • These rays are reflected from a concave mirror to a diagonal plane mirror. • The diagonal plane mirror reflects the light to an eyepiece. • The larger the diameter of the mirror, the brighter the light at the focus.

4. Dentists lamp • The light bulb is placed at the focal point. • Light rays reflect off a parabolic mirror and parallel beams of light project outward. • The parallel light rays provide uniform illumination resulting in no shadows. Shadows sometimes are mistaken for cavities.

5. Makeup • Shaving or makeup mirrors must be concave and have a long focal length. • Your face must be inside the focal point so that the image of your face is virtual, upright, and larger.

6. Solar furnace • Concave mirror focuses the sun’s rays to a focal point. • Usually water is run through a tube at the focal point and heated by the converging rays. • The hot water can be used to turn a turbine producing electricity or heat a building. • Solar ovens use the same principle to heat food.

7. Satellite dish • A concave “dish” or reflector is used to reflect TV signals to a central focal point. • These signals are then relayed to a receiver and your TV set. • Concave reflectors are used for picking up radio waves from space and telecommunication signals on earth.

8. Convex • Diverging mirrors are used because they contain more visual information then regular mirrors, hence they give a wider angle of view.

9. Store security • Stores use convex mirrors to provide a wide field of view for security. • Convex mirrors always produce virtual, upright, and smaller images.

10. Car rear view mirrors • Some cars, buses, and trucks use convex mirrors on one of the rear view mirrors. • Convex mirrors produce a wider field of view, thereby providing the driver more view in all directions. • Our brain interprets small objects as always being farther away than large objects. Because the convex mirror produces smaller images, we assume that the object must be far away. Therefore, some mirrors have a message saying that objects are closer than they appear.

11. Funhouse mirror • Combinations of concave and convex mirrors, often cylindrical, produce funny images. • The images can portray you as very short and fat, very tall and thin, or combinations of the two.