"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" We've all heard this dialogue from Snowwhite and the seven dwarfs. But what kind of mirror was it? What were the properties that enabled these spherical mirrors to be so special? Well, let us find answers to it in this section. Explore the fascinating world of spherical mirrors, covering types, curvature, image formation, reflection principles, and practical applications. Curved Mirrors We can define two general types of spherical mirrors. If the reflecting surface is the outer side of the sphere, the mirror is called a convex mirror. If the inside surface is the reflecting surface, it is called a concave mirror. Symmetry is one of the major hallmarks of many optical devices, including mirrors and lenses. What is a Spherical Mirror? A spherical mirror is essentially a piece of a reflective sphere. Imagine cutting out a small section of a shiny, hollow ball; that’s what a spherical mirror looks like. The main characteristic of these mirrors is their curved surface, which is part of a sphere.
