Various Types of Mirrors That Are Usually Seen and Their Common Uses

A mirror is an important glass-made object that reflects light and the images of everything that comes in front of it. There is hardly any household without a mirror in the bedroom or bathroom. The family members use it to check their own reflections. However, there are different types of mirrors according to the shapes and the focal points of these. People should be aware of the correct uses of these objects that can guide them while buying a mirror from the local or online market.

Mirrors

Different Varieties of Mirrors as Used in Daily Life

• Plane mirror – The plane mirror has a flat glass surface over which only the virtual image of an object can be reflected. Image produced by this type of mirror is absolutely the same in shape and size as the real object. This image is only laterally inverted and remains erect lengthwise. Hence, the plane mirrors are commonly used as looking glasses all over the world.

• Concave mirror – The concave mirror is also commonly termed as a spherical mirror, as round shape is most preferable for highlighting its functions. This mirror is curved towards the centre which resembles the shape of a spoon. It produces much larger images than the original objects, as the focal point is only at the centre of the glass surface, which magnifies the resultant images of all objects to a large extent.

• Convex mirror – The convex mirror is also categorised under the spherical bathroom mirrors, due to the round shape of this mirror and it is identical to the concave mirror. However, the convex mirror swells and extends towards the outer periphery, forming the shape of the backside of a spoon. So its focal point forms the images at much wider angles, thus decreasing the size of the images than the actual objects.

Notable Applications of The Prominent Mirrors Available in The Market

• Uses of plane mirror – Plane bathroom mirrors are widely installed as looking glass on the dressing tables and above the bathroom sinks for a proper reflection of people, in all the common households. This mirror is also used in making many scientific instruments where the creation of the same virtual image is essential for conducting the experiments. Now, this mirror is usually fitted on the solar cookers for reflecting the sunlight and producing maximum energy. It is also installed in kaleidoscopes, where the virtual images of different colourful objects are produced in definite designs for entertaining the kids.

• Utilization of concave mirror – The concave mirrors are widely used as shaving mirrors, where the face of the user can be highly magnified helping in safe and clean shaving. This type of mirror is also used for magnifying the light of the lighthouses so that the ships can see it from far distances. Similarly, the headlights of the vehicles also make use of this function. The concave mirror in the headlight enlarges the light that shows the way in darkness. It is used for making the solar reflectors to produce more solar energy from the glass panels. Likewise, the flashlight of a camera, magnifying glass, telescope and electron microscope also use this magnifying characteristic of concave mirror.

• Operation of convex mirror – The convex mirror is mainly used for viewing the road behind from a vehicle. Therefore, it is installed as the side view mirror outside the left window of the car. The mirrors of the street light reflectors are also convex, for elaborating the actual light to a large extent. It is also used in many sunglasses and making anti-theft devices for receiving smaller images of the entire space where it is installed.

There are many more types of interesting plane bathroom mirrors that are invented and often used by the common people in various applications.