Concept of Reflection and Laws of Reflection

Master the magic of reflection: Discover the laws that govern bouncing light and its everyday wonders.

Concept of Reflection

The idea that light travels in straight lines is uppermost, while its wave character and other physical aspects are disregarded. Since the laws of reflection and refraction corollaries of the wave nature. Sources of light, such as the sun, stars, and electric lamps can be seen when the light they produce reaches the eyes. However, most objects can only be seen when light is reflected off the surface of an object. An object that reflects no light appears to be black. On the other hand, an object that reflects all of the light appears the same color as the light source, for instance, something that reflects all of the white light reaching it from the sun appears with white light mirrors and highly polished surfaces, that reflect light strongly and we shall now deal with the laws governing the reflection.

Laws of Reflection

This illustrates the terms that we use in the study of reflected light.

Laws of reflection

Represents the surface of a plane. AO called the incident ray, is the direction in which light falls onto the reflecting surface. O is the point of incidence and OR is the, reflected ray. The angles, that the incident and reflected rays make with ON, the normal or perpendicular to the reflected surface at the point of incidence, are, called the angles of incidence and reflection respectively. 

The laws of reflection are -

1st Law of reflection: The incidence ray, the reflected ray, and the normal at the point of 
incidence all lie in the same plane.

2nd Law of reflection: The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.