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Mirage
Object
 Mirage – A mirage forms where air rises over a hot surface.
Observer imagines light travels in straight lines and so believes that it comes from the ground and is a reflection from water.
Direct line of sight
Cool air
Very hot air
Virtual image – where the light appears to come from
The light is refracted as it passes from the cool to the hot air. As light passes from the object towards the ground, it is curved upwards and so is seen by the observer.
Mirage
 Mirror – A mirror creates a virtual image as far behind the mirror as the object is in front of the mirror. The image is reversed left to right.
Mirror
An optical illusion produced by hot air rising from the ground. On a hot day the air close to the ground is warmed more than the air above. As light passes through this warm air, it is bent back upwards because the properties of warm air are different from cold air (just as the properties of glass are different from air). The bending of light makes us see both a distant object directly and also the image of the object made by the bending of rays in the hot air layer close to the ground. That produces a mirror effect in which both an object ,
and its reflection are visible. We are used to seeing reflections in water, so we imagine that the reflection is produced by a
lake or puddle. That is the mirage.
Mirror
A surface that reflects light
well and that can be used to see objects. Many mirrors are flat. They consist of a sheet of glass with silver or aluminium coating on the back. The glass protects the metal from becoming dull due to contact with the air. The glass itself plays no part in the mirror effect.
Mirrors can be made that bulge outwards (convex mirrors), or that
Image inverted (left to right)
Object
Eye
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