Student Exploration: Ray Tracing (Mirrors)(ANSWER KEY)DownloadStudent Exploration: Ray Tracing (Mirrors)Vocabulary: concave mirror, convex mirror, focal point, magnification, real image, reflect, virtualimagePrior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)For these questions, it would be helpful to have a metal spoon on hand. If you don’t have one, try toimagine looking at yourself i
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Student Exploration: Ray Tracing (Mirrors)
(ANSWER KEY)
Download
Student Exploration: Ray Tracing (Mirrors)
Vocabulary: concave mirror, convex mirror, focal point, magnification, real image, reflect, virtual
image
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
For these questions, it would be helpful to have a metal spoon on hand. If you don’t have one, try to
imagine looking at yourself in a spoon.
Look at yourself in the front of the spoon (the side where the food sits). What do you see?
The front of a spoon is an example of a concave mirror.
What do you see when you look at yourself in the back of a spoon?
The back of a spoon is an example of a convex mirror.
Gizmo Warm-up
The Ray Tracing (Mirrors) Gizmo™ shows a side view of a light bulb positioned to the left of a mirror.
Light rays passing from the light bulb to the mirror are shown.
To begin, select the Concave mirror. Turn on Colorize lines. Under Show lines, turn off
the Central line and the Line through focal point so that only the Parallel line is showing.
The blue dot in front of the mirror is the focal point of the mirror. Move the light bulb on the left
around. What is always true about the ray that is reflected from the parallel ray?
Turn off the Parallel line and turn on the Line through focal point. Move the light bulb around.
What do you notice about the reflected ray in this situation?
Activity A:
Real and virtual
images
Get the Gizmo ready:
Check that the Concave mirror is
selected.
Turn on the Parallel line, Central line,
and Line through focal point.
Place the light bulb above -24 on the
central axis, with the focal point at -12.
Introduction: A concave mirror is also called a “converging mirror” because it reflects light rays into
a point. A real image is formed where the reflected light rays converge at a point. Unlike a virtual
image that forms behind a mirror, a real image can be projected onto a screen
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