- Electromagnetic waves are waves that do not need a medium to propagate

- Electromagnetic waves *or * electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy emitted and absorbed by
;accelerating charged particles, which exhibit wave-like behavior as they travel through space.

An infrared transmission from a cellphone was sent to another device at a frequency of 300 GHz (1 GHz
= 1 x 109 Hz ). What was the wavelength of the wave transmitted?

Electromagnetic (EM) waves travel through a vacuum (without a transmission medium), unlike other
types of waves such as sound waves. With respect to wave propagation (the way in which they travel), all
electromagnetic waves are transverse in nature. This means that they oscillate perpendicular (at a right
angle) to the direction of energy transfer. All these radiations travel at the same speed; that is the speed of
light (c) in a vacuum.

The velocity (c) is related to frequency (f) and wavelength (λ) and is demonstrated by the equation:

c= λf

The SI unit for speed is m/s, for wavelength is m, and for frequency is 1/s.

- Electromagnetic spectrum is a collective term used for the wide range of radiations that are
emitted and absorbed at varying frequencies and
wavelengths.

The regions of the electromagnetic spectrum are:

 radio waves
 microwaves
 infrared (IR)
 visible light
 ultraviolet (UV)
 x-rays
 gamma rays
Mirrors are optical instruments that reflect light. There are 3 main types of mirrors: the plane, the
concave and the convex.

Plane (or flat) mirrors are the most straightforward with planar reflective surfaces. Once a ray of
light hits a flat mirror then the incident angle is equal to the angle of reflection.

At the point of incidence a line is drawn which is perpendicular to the flat mirror
that equally divides the angles of incident and reflected. For instance, when we want to see an
object, let’s say a blue ball, from a mirror, then we need to see it along the line at its image
location (light blue). Light will travel to our eyes along that line and, hence, we will observe the
ball as in figure 1, where θ is the value of the incident and the reflected angle.

Convex
and concave are collectively known as spherical mirrors. Each is
governed by its own law of reflection.

Let us see how they reflect light.

Figure 2 - A concave mirror

Figure 3 - A convex mirror

In each case, Point C is the center of curvature, and is the point in the center of the spherical
mirror from which the curve on the mirror was formed. Point F is the focal length and is the
place where all rays hitting the mirror will be focused.

A concave mirror will always focus rays inwards whereas a convex mirror will focus outwards.
In concave mirrors, and depending on the distance between the object (from which the light rays
stem from) and the mirror, the image can take many forms: upright or inverted, magnified or
diminished, real or virtual. In general, we can find the form of the image by applying the lens
equation which states that the addition of the reciprocal of the object’s distance and the
reciprocal of the image’s distance will be equal to the reciprocal of the focal length of the mirror,
or
1 1 1
= +
𝑓 𝑑𝑜 𝑑𝑖

eqn. 1. The focal length is positive for concave mirrors and negative for convex ones. From eqn.
1, we can derive that once the object is placed at the focal length of the mirror, then dobject =
infinity, thus, there is no image produced.

Moreover,
the magnification of the image is defined as

m = height of image / height of object = - distance of image/distance of image

eqn. 2. and by definition its value is 1 for plane mirrors.

If the magnification is negative then the image is inverted, otherwise it is said to be upright.

In order to find where the image will be formed after it hits the mirror we need to implement the
following steps:

1) Draw a parallel line from the top height of the object. When it meets the mirror then this ray
will be driven to the focal point.
2) Draw a line that passes through the focal point and meets the mirror. Once it hits the mirror
then this line will become parallel.

The point where these two lines intersect will

be where the image will be formed. Take a look at figure 4 that depicts the
image formation for a convex mirror.

In convex mirrors the image will always be located behind the mirror, it will be virtual and
upright, and reduced in size.

In general, when we want to find the characteristics of the image formed we need to implement
the lens equation and sketch the two principals (steps 1 and 2) to see where the image will be
formed.

Solve the following:

1. A 4.00-cm tall light bulb is placed a distance of 45.7 cm from a concave mirror having a focal
length of 15.2 cm. Determine the image distance and the image size.
2. A 4.0-cm tall light bulb is placed a distance of 8.3 cm from a concave mirror having a focal length
of 15.2 cm. (NOTE: this is the same object and the same mirror, only this time the object is
placed closer to the mirror.) Determine the image distance and the image size.
3. Determine the image distance and image height for a 5.00-cm tall object placed 20.0 cm from a
concave mirror having a focal length of 15.0 cm.
4. Determine the image distance and image height for a 5.00-cm tall object placed 10.0 cm from a
concave mirror having a focal length of 15.0 cm.
5. A magnified, inverted image is located a distance of 32.0 cm from a concave mirror with a focal
length of 12.0 cm. Determine the object distance and tell whether the image is real or virtual.