Image formation in concave mirror.

Puneeth423

Can we see a real image with our naked eye without using a screen to capture image?
Also, we all know that virtual image formation in a concave mirror will be always erect. Check out the image below.

Spoon here acts as a concave mirror and the image is inverted. Why is it virtual then?

Attached Thumbnails

 

ehild

Yes, we can

How do you know it is virtual?

ehild

Puneeth423

The image appears to be inside spoon.

ehild

It looks inside, but not behind. Try to use a torch and a small piece of tracing paper to catch the image.

ehild

Puneeth423

Whats the difference if it appears behind or it is seen inside the mirror?
We can catch the real image on a paper. But my question is about the image which we are seeing inside the mirror?

ehild

The image in the spoon is real. It looks not inside the mirror but inside the spoon. ( If you have soup with that spoon, the soup is inside, not behind. So is with the image. )
Get closer to the spoon. The image gets closer and closer to you, at the end you see the image at your nose. :)

The image you see in a plane mirror looks behind the mirror (you can say inside the world behind the mirror.) The mirror is just a thin layer of aluminium on a glass sheet, you can not see a picture inside it. That image seen in a plane mirror is virtual and erect. You can not catch it with a screen.

ehild

Puneeth423

Ok. You are telling that the image which i see is image of the real image which forms or the diverging rays which after forming a real image enters my eyes and form an image of the inverted real image?

ehild

Yes. The rays reflected from the mirror meet and form the real image, but go further and reach your eye. The lenses of your eyes form real images on the retina. You observe those images and you see them at the place from where the diverging beams originated.

ehild

Puneeth423

We can see this image only if the real image is formed in front of us. What happens if the rays enter our eyes before they form the real image?(for ex: If you place yourself between focal point and radius of curvature of the mirror, your eye will receive the rays before they form the real image. What will happen here?)

ehild

In case the image would form behind the eye, it is negative object distance, a virtual object. The image must form on the retina to be seen, so the eye must be placed at a specific point. The image on the retina is real, but the object is virtual, image distance/ object distance is negative, the image is erect.

If you place your eye before the real image from the mirror or lens and you see a clear image, it is erect. That is why you see normally when wearing glasses.

ehild,