Reflection and Mirrors Labs
The following PDF files represent a collection of Lab write ups pertaining to the topic of Reflection and Mirrors. The Labs are synchronized to readings from the Tutorial, missions of the Minds On activities, and more. Teachers may print these Labs and their related Ruberics and use them freely with their classes. Learn more about creating a Lab Notebook for these activities as well as Reporting and Guidelines.
Available Labs
Select a Lab below to learn more about it, or download the teacher guide and other supporting documents.
Reflection Lab
What general principle could be made to describe how light reflects off a plane mirror surface?
Plane Mirror Image Lab
How does the distance from object to the mirror compare to the distance from the image to the mirror?
Rough versus Smooth Lab
How does reflection of light off a paper surface compare to the reflection of light off a plane mirror surface? What if the paper is uniformly wet?
What Portion ...? Lab
How does the amount of mirror required to view an image of yourself compare to your height? Does the distance from the mirror affect your answer?
Right Angle Mirror Lab
At what location is the secondary image for a right-angle mirror formed? What theoretical rule or general strategy could be stated to predict its location if given the object location?
Improving Your Image Lab
What is the mathematical relationship between the number of images formed by a combination of two plane mirrors and the angle between the mirrors?
Infinity Derivation
What mathematical equation could be written to describe the image distances resulting from a set of parallel plane mirrors?
Exploring Curved Mirrors Lab
How does the orientation and relative size of an image change as the object is moved from a position close to a concave mirror (and a convex mirror) to a position very far away?
Finding Smiley Lab
How can a graphical representation of object distance and image distance be interpreted? What meaning can be gleaned from the graph?
Magnification Ratio Lab
What object locations (relative to the surface of a concave mirror and expressed in terms of focal lengths) would result in the formation of images with magnification values of -1, -2, and -0.5?
Mirror Equation Derivation
How can geometry, algebra and simple ray construction be used with a concave mirror in order to develop a relationship between the object distance, image distance and focal length?