Plane mirror
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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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. The angle of incidence is the angle between the incident ray and the surface normal (an imaginary line perpendicular to the surface). Therefore the angle of reflection is the angle between the reflected ray and the normal and a collimated beam of light does not spread out after reflection from a plane mirror, except for diffraction effects.
A plane mirror makes an image 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 shape and size as the object it is reflecting. A virtual image is a copy of an object formed at the location from which the light rays appear to come. However, the image is a laterally-inverted "mirror image" of the object. If a person is reflected in a plane mirror, the image of his right hand appears to be the left hand of the image. It is the only type of mirror which always gives us an image which is virtual, erect and of the same size as that of the object.
Preparation
It is made by using a straight piece of glass and some highly reflecting and polished surface such as silver surface. The reflecting surface reflects all the light coming on it.
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 therefore the focal length, becomes infinite.
