Plane Mirrors

            Plane mirrors are the mirrors which we use to view ourselves in.  When we look into a plane mirror, we see our reflection, which isn’t distorted in size.  But the image formed is left right reversed.  That is why if you have a birthmark on your right cheek, it will appear to be on your left cheek in a mirror.  Because the image is erect it must be virtual. 

Mirrors

            Curved mirrors work in the same way that lenses work.  The difference is that a concave mirror, works the way a convex lens does, and a convex mirror works the way a concave lens does.  This means that a concave mirror is a converging mirror, so the rays will focus on the same side of the mirror.  On the other hand, a convex mirror will diverge and have a virtual focus located at a point F on the other side of the mirror.  The center of curvature of a mirror is located at 2F. 

One of the problems that a spherical mirror has is that Light rays won’t focus directly onto F.  Therefore the image is a little fuzzy.  To correct this, mirrors are shaped parabolically, which forces the Light rays to focus onto F.