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Is a Mirror Image a Real Image?

Published in Image Classification 2 mins read

No, a mirror image is not a real image. It's a virtual image.

Understanding Real vs. Virtual Images

  • Real images: These images are formed when light rays actually converge at a point. You can project a real image onto a screen. Concave mirrors can form real images, but only when the object is placed beyond the focal point.

  • Virtual images: These images are formed when light rays appear to converge at a point, but they don't actually meet there. You cannot project a virtual image onto a screen. Plane mirrors always produce virtual images.

The Mirror's Reflection: A Virtual Image

What you see in a plane mirror is a virtual image. The light rays from you reflect off the mirror's surface. These reflected rays diverge, as if they're coming from a point behind the mirror. Your brain interprets this divergence as an image located behind the mirror—a virtual image. While this image accurately represents your appearance (though reversed left-to-right), it is not a real image because the light rays do not actually converge to form it. This is confirmed by numerous sources, including the provided Quora and Physics Stack Exchange links, which emphasize that the image in a plane mirror is a virtual image (https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/382423/why-would-a-real-image-be-visible-in-a-mirror).

The statement "What you see in the mirror is a reflection of yourself, which is a real image created by the interaction of light with the surfaces of the mirror" is therefore incorrect in its classification of the image as "real". While it's a true reflection, the image formation process produces a virtual, not a real image.

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