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Secret of the Mirage®
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The Mirage® consists of two concave mirrors facing one another. The top mirror has
a circular opening. The object rests on the bottom mirror.
The ray diagram consists of two light rays as in previous cases. Each ray path has
three parts.
Starting from the red ball the light ray goes along the pink path intersecting
the top mirror at (1). The ray changes direction because of the reflection rule that
the incident and reflection angles are the same.
We have chosen a ray which turns straight down. This is depicted by the green path, which
impinges upon the bottom mirror at point (2).
Applying the reflection rule we draw the outgoing ray (3) shown in blue.
The second ray is drawn most easily by employing symmetry arguments. The real image is located
where the light ray paths intersect as shown below.
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