Quality of mirrors:

Rear and side view mirrors can be convex, plane but cannot be concave. This is
because concave mirrors produce an inverted image thus the drivers would see
the cars upside down. Plain mirrors were used in America in the early 2000s
because they only permit flat mirrors for their cars and Europe mainly uses
convex mirrors for their rear and side view mirrors for a better and useful field of
view.

In the 16th century, mirrors were mainly made of bronze but this was improved
later between late 16th century and the 17th century because it was prone to
corrosion and it gives a dim image which is very inadequate for indoor use. They
changed bronze into mercury and they obtained an undistorted reflection but
this also had some problems due to the mercurys toxicity.

Nowadays mirrors are made up of a substrate (normally, sheets of glass are used
because of its rigidity, hardness, transparency and ease of fabrication). These
sheets are moulded into convex/concave mirrors and they wash it with chemicals
afterwards. They spray molten tin to it and use silver nitrate or tin (ii) chloride for
the reflective coating. They wait for it to harden so that it could be able to reflect
light.

PHYSICS OF THE MIRRORS:

Since mirrors are used in cars, the Physics Theory involved here is the Laws of
reflection (in Mirrors).

Rule 1 states that: Ray of light parallel to the principal axis after reflection
passes through focus
Rule 2 states that: Ray of light passing through focus after reflection becomes
parallel to the principal axis
Rule 3 states that: image is formed on where rule 1 and rule 2 is intersecting.
An image can be straight or inverted; enlarged, diminished or same; real (can be
projected on screen) or virtual (cannot be projected)

Rule 4 states that: If Incident ray falls on a reflective surface at 90 degrees, it

returns on the same path.

Diagram 1 (Concave):Label Focus, Centre of Curvature and Optical Axis,

Object, Tangent
Axis, Rule 1 in black, Rule 2 in blue, Rule 3 in red, Rule 4 in
black.
- As seen in the diagram, Concave mirrors do produce an inverted, magnified and
closer image therefore it cannot be used for the rear and side view mirrors. (Put
2 objects, 1 close to mirror, 1 further away from the mirror)

Diagram 1 (Convex):Label Focus, Centre of Curvature and Optical Axis, Object,

Tangent
Axis, Rule 1 in black, Rule 2 in blue, Rule 3 in red, Rule 4 in
black.
- As seen in the diagram, Convex mirrors do produce a straight and diminished
and farther image therefore it is used in rear and side view mirrors so that the
drivers can see a greater range of things behind him including the elimination of
blind spots as the image is diminished/smaller. (Put 2 objects, 1 close to mirror, 1
further away from the mirror)
As said earlier, convex mirrors make the image smaller so that drivers can see a
wider view of the things behind them. This means that the field of view of these
mirrors are greater than plain mirrors because this type of mirror does not
decrease the images size so therefore it is inappropriate to use.

A research study made by students from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor
Publisher)
Found out that the average depth field of view of mirrors are about (on average)
14 degrees on the left side view mirror and 19.8 degrees on the right side view
mirror. This means that in New Zealand, it will be 14 degrees on the left and 19.8
degrees on the right because the position of the driver in NZ is opposite to that
of the drivers position in America. And as for rear view mirrors, it has an average
field of view 15 -17 degrees.

We see a wider field of view on the side view mirror opposite to us because the
physics theory of reflection (diagram shown above) shows us that when an
object I.e. driver is further away from the mirror, it will create a more diminished
image which means that drivers can see more things behind coming close to
him.

However, just becausethe images are smaller some drivers think that the thing
behind them are farther away from their car but in reality they are actually close
than they appear. That is why automobile mirror manufacturers put a warning
legend on the side view mirrors saying OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN
THEY APPEARso that they would not get sued or charged.

MODERN IMPROVEMENT/AUGMENTATIONS

in the past people just use normal mirrors for their cars rear and side view
mirrors but now there are many improvements and that are being done to ensure
the safety of the drivers.

Since convex mirrors are very useful in cars, they have now made convex plain
mirrors for their car mirrors in America since their law states that all car mirrors
used should be flat and also because their research suggests that non planar
mirror side view mirrors reduce the risks of having accidents. Manufacturers have
also attached a retraction control which allows the mirrors to be electrically
folded in so that passing cars would not easily harm/damage the side mirrors.

For rear view mirrors, they also improved its performance by applying prismatic
rear view mirrors which are manually controlled by using the tab attached below
the mirror. This tab allows the drivers to switch the mirror into day or night
position which makes the mirror adjust to how much light it is receiving and
being reflected off it.

Since the early 1970s manual tilt or day and night position rear view mirrors
have been the standard mirror used on cars and trucks. These rear view mirrors
are actually made up of 2 mirrors. There is a highly reflective back surface at the
back and a less reflective surface at the front part of the rear view mirror. All this
does is it tilts the mirror down when it is in day position so that less glare is being
seen by the driver as the front glass surface is only reflecting a little amount of
light from the back seat of the car. When it is in night position the mirror is facing
up so that front surface would only reflect a dim light coming from the cars
behind you. This helps the driver to see a clear view of what is behind without
too much or too little of a light reflecting off the rear view mirror.

Nowadays, there is a new version of rear view mirrors that have glare and antiglare adjustments. It is more expensive than the standard rear view mirrors but it
is very helpful to drivers because the mirror automatically adjusts to the amount
of light it reflects. This method is called electrochromism.This is very useful to
side view mirrors as well because this is the only easy way to dim the bright
lights that is coming from behind as adjusting it manually while driving would be
an option because it is dangerous. Electrochromism allows the mirror to sense
how much light it is reflecting and when the mirror is reflecting too much light,
an electrical charge is delivered to the electrochromatic glass and the light
transmission aspects of it are changed, making the glass tinted therefore
allowing less light to be reflected towards the driver.

Recently, manufacturers have also produced rear view video cameras as an addon and it has also been built in to new model cars.This camera is attached to the
rear bumper or lower parts of the vehicle. This is a better equipment to use
because it gives the drivers a better rear visibility as it shows a wider view of the
things behind the car whereas for the standard rear view mirrors the rear
visibility is not that wide because the back seat and the trunk of the car is
concealing at least 3 5 metres of road behind the car. Using these rear video
cameras will decrease the risks of having an accident while driving.

Also, a Drexel University professor named R. Andrew Hicks has received a patent
on his disco ball-inspired side view mirror that eliminates the blind spot of
drivers. He said, Imagine that the mirrors surface is made of many smaller
mirrors turned to different angles, like a disco ball. He made this happen by
controlling the angle light that is reflected by the mirror. This made his curved
mirror to act differently than what its supposed to do. The mirror has a field of
view of 45 degrees. This is very useful than the standard mirrors because it has a
much greater field of view (average of 14 19.8 degrees) than an average side
view mirror and it gives a clearer and less distorted view of the rear. It would not
be implemented in America soon because all side view mirrors must be flat but
Hicks is interested in letting the manufacturers produce it.