lawyer

Let us first study what is law of reflection with respect to a single light ray. Look at the following diagram.

Let MM' be a plane mirror which is absolutely smooth. A light ray AO strikes the mirror at O (the incident ray), and it is reflected as ray OA'. called as reflected ray. ON is the perpendicular to MM' at O. It is also called as the normal to the surface at the point of reflection.

The angle made by the incident ray with the normal ON is p and q be the angle made by the reflected ray with the same normal. These are called as 'Angle of Incidence' and the 'Angle of Reflection' respectively.

According to the Law of Reflection, Angle of incidence is always equal to angle of reflection.

Now, let us consider a set of rays assuming a plane mirror with a smooth and perfect surface. The situation is explained in the following diagram: