1. Click on the “Green flag”: the mirror becomes horizontal. 2. Set the mirror angle using the up/down arrow keys. 3. Click the “Emit ray” button to run the simulation.
The law of optical reflection says that when a ray of light is reflected on a reflecting surface (such as a mirror) its angle of incidence is equal to its angle of reflection. This program will set up a simple interactive experiment to view a demonstration of this law. A source of light (a light bulb) is placed at the top of the screen, and a reflecting mirror is placed directly below the light source near the bottom of the screen. When a button is clicked, a ray of light is seen traveling from the light source to the mirror and reflect from it. The user can change the angle of the mirror and thus change the angle of incidence of the ray of light.
