In Physics, a pinhole camera forms an image by allowing light rays from an object to pass through a small aperture, creating a real, inverted image on the camera's screen.
The subject in question is Physics, specifically related to the formation of images by lenses in optical devices. To explain how the image is formed on the screen of a pinhole camera, we would need to consider how light rays from the object pass through the pinhole and project onto the screen inside the camera. Since the pinhole acts like a very small aperture, it only allows a small fraction of rays from different points on the object to pass through, these rays then diverge and form an inverted image on the opposite side of the camera's screen.
A real image is formed when light rays from one point on the object actually cross at the location of the image, as is the case in conventional cameras. This is different from a virtual image, where light rays appear to originate but do not actually pass through the location in space. Thus, the image formed by a pinhole camera is a real image that can be projected onto the screen.
Here are the steps for drawing a ray diagram for a pinhole camera:
- Draw a straight line from the top of the object through the pinhole to the bottom of the screen inside the camera. This represents the path of the light ray that travels through the pinhole from the topmost point of the object.
- Draw a second straight line from the bottom of the object through the pinhole to the top of the screen. This demonstrates the path of the light ray from the bottommost point of the object.
- The point where these two lines cross on the screen is where the image is focused and inverted.