Optics: Reflection and Image Formation

Vocabulary flashcards covering the rectilinear motion of light, real image formation, and reflection by plane mirrors.

Rectilinear

The manner in which light moves in straight lines.

Real image

An image formed when light spreads out from one place that can always be projected (for example, in a pinhole camera experiment).

Descriptors of real images

Terms used to describe real images, including inverted, enlarged, blurry, and real.

Normal

A reference line in the reflection of light that is always perpendicular to the plane mirror.

Image in a plane mirror

An image that is laterally inverted, a virtual image, and the same size as the object.

Law of reflection ($i=r$)

The principle stating that the incident ray is always equal to the reflected ray ($i=r$).