Question

When a beam of light is incident on a plane mirror, it is found that a real image is formed. The incident beam must be

• A. Converging
• B. Diverging
• C. Parallel
• D. Formation of real image by a plane mirror is impossible

Answer 1

The correct option is A Converging

Real images are images formed when the reflected or refracted rays actually meet or converge to a point.


In the figure shown above, the rays that are reflected from the mirror actually meet at a point. If a screen is placed at that point, a bright spot will be visible on the screen. Thus, a real image can be captured on a screen, if the incident beam is converging.

$\begin{array}{c}\text{Why this Question?}\\ \text{This question has been given to check student's basic understanding of image formation in plane mirror}\\ \\ \text{Note :-}\text{An object can also be virtual as shown in the figure above. If the incident rays appear to be}\\ \text{converging to a point, then the point can be considered to be a virtual object}\end{array}$