Lesson: Concave Mirrors Science • Third Year of Preparatory School

Students will be able to

• identify the center of curvature of a spherical mirror in a diagram,
• recognize that, for a concave mirror, the center of curvature of a spherical mirror is on the same side as the observer,
• understand that the radius of curvature of a spherical mirror is just the radius of the sphere,
• recognize that a spherical mirror has a focal point,
• recognize that a concave spherical mirror will focus parallel incident rays at a point,
• understand that the focal length of a spherical mirror is the distance between the center of the surface of the mirror and the focal point,
• use the relationship that focal length = the radius of curvature.