Curved Mirror Types

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Concave or Converging Mirrors

A curved mirror that has its center farther away from you than its edges is called a concave mirror.

A concave mirror tends to reflect parallel rays through a point called its focus - in other words a concave mirror converges light. Therefore concave mirrors are often referred to as converging mirrors. This converging effect makes sense if you imagine a concave mirror to be an array of small plane mirrors.

You can demonstrate the converging of parallel light rays by a concave mirror quite dramatically for yourself. A relatively small concave mirror placed in the sun will gather enough light to ignite a small piece of paper quite quickly.

WARNING - Never look directly at the sun or its reflection in a mirror. Never try to focus the sun's rays onto another person or a flamable structure. The amount of energy gathered by a small mirror is quite surprising - and DANGEROUS! Act responsibly!

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Convex or Diverging Mirrors

A curved mirror that has its center closer to you than its edges is called a convex mirror.

A convex mirror tends to reflect parallel rays so that they spread out, or diverge. For this reason, convex mirrors are often referred to as diverging mirrors. This diverging effect makes sense if you think of a convex mirror as an array of small plane mirrors.

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last update October 2, 1998 by JL Stanbrough