Definition

The New Cartesian Sign Convention is used as the sign convention for the mirrors or lenses.

  • The Pole is taken as the origin
  • The Principal Axis is taken as the X-Axis. Pasted image 20230706142240.png

Rules

Everything is based on the incident ray, and incident ray is always positive. If ray is coming from left to right:

  • The object is always placed at the left of the mirror.
  • All distances parallel to the principal axis is measured from the pole of the mirror.
  • Distances to the right of the mirror is always taken as positive and left of the mirror is taken as negative
  • Distance perpendicular to and above the principal axis is taken as positive
  • Distance perpendicular to and below the principal axis is taken as negative

Backlinks

Spherical Lenses Spherical Mirrors


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