Question

You see an upright, magnified image of your face when you look into a magnifying cosmetic mirror. Where is the image? Is it in front of the mirror's surface, on the mirror's surface, or behind the mirror's surface? Explain.

Short answer

The magnified image forms behind the surface of the mirror.

Step-by-step solution

definition of mirror

Unlike mirrors, most natural surfaces are rough on the scale of the wavelength of light, and as an outcome, parallel incident light rays are reflected in many different directions irregularly or diffusely.

Step 2:Find image

A magnifying cosmetic mirror is a concave mirror with a large radius of curvature and thus a large focal length. It works as follows. When your face is less than one focal length in front of it, a magnified virtual image of your face forms behind the mirror's surface. The figure below depicts a ray diagram of this situation.