Year 8 - Science
Reflected images
Making images
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
This unit explores the transmission of light, including absorption, scattering, and reflection, and the use of the ray model in imaging, refraction, and lenses. It also covers energy transfer in various processes, using safe techniques, making accurate observations, and improving reliability.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to describe and explain the properties of reflections in a plane mirror, and draw diagrams to show how reflections form.
Key Notes
- Reflections are the same size as the object, upright, and the same distance behind the mirror as the object is in front.
- In a plane mirror, reflections appear laterally inverted compared to the object when it is facing us.
- Mirrors reflect what is in front of them. Reflections are laterally inverted as objects are turned to face a mirror.
- Reflections are virtual images; they appear where light rays seem to have come from, not where they actually come from.
- Virtual rays show where light rays appear to have come from; they are drawn as dashed lines.
Vocabulary To Learn
- image: a representation of an object
- reflection: (1) the process of light 'bouncing off' a surface (2) an image seen in a mirror
- laterally inverted: describes an image that has been 'flipped' horizontally
- virtual ray: a dashed line drawn to show where light seems to be (but is not actually) coming from
- virtual image: an image that can be seen but not projected onto a screen
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Mirrors must somehow turn images around or 'flip' them to make reflections laterally inverted.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the scientific idea in this lesson using two key points.
Reflections are the same size as the object, upright, and the same distance behind the mirror as the object is in front. In a plane mirror, reflections appear laterally inverted compared to the object when it is facing us.
2. Define this scientific word and use it in context. 'image'
a representation of an object. Include the word in a full scientific explanation, not as a single label.
3. Correct this common scientific misunderstanding.
Mistake: Mirrors must somehow turn images around or 'flip' them to make reflections laterally inverted. Correction: Explicitly teach that a mirror merely (and passively) reflects what is directly in front of each part of it. Pupils can observe the reflection of text on clear plastic: the image is the same as what is seen looking through the back of the text.
More Lessons In This Unit
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