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A trucker looks in her diverging mirror and sees the image of her face the focal length of the mirror is 50 cm and the magnification of the mirror is 0.10

A) calculate the image distance if possible
B) calculate the object distance

User Allysha
by
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1 Answer

5 votes

Answer:

A) To calculate the image distance, we can use the mirror formula:

1/f = 1/di + 1/do

Where:

f = focal length of the mirror

di = image distance

do = object distance

Given that the focal length of the mirror is 50 cm and the magnification of the mirror is 0.10, we can find the image distance.

Using the magnification formula:

m = -di/do

Where:

m = magnification

di = image distance

do = object distance

We can substitute the given magnification value into the formula:

0.10 = -di/do

Rearranging the formula, we get:

do = -di/0.10

Now we can substitute the value of the focal length into the mirror formula:

1/50 = 1/di + 1/do

Simplifying the equation, we have:

1/di + 1/do = 1/50

Substituting the value of do from the magnification formula into the mirror formula, we get:

1/di + 1/(-di/0.10) = 1/50

Simplifying further, we have:

1/di - 10/di = 1/50

Combining the terms with a common denominator, we get:

-9/di = 1/50

Cross-multiplying, we have:

-9 * 50 = di

Therefore, the image distance is:

di = -450 cm (or -4.5 meters)

B) To calculate the object distance, we can use the magnification formula:

m = -di/do

Given that the magnification is 0.10, we can substitute the value of di (which we calculated earlier) into the formula:

0.10 = -(-450)/do

Simplifying the equation, we have:

0.10 = 450/do

Cross-multiplying, we get:

0.10 * do = 450

Therefore, the object distance is:

do = 4500 cm (or 45 meters)

User Mimmo Grottoli
by
7.7k points