Concave Mirror - Rays and Time

School aims to teach you a thing or two about almost everything there is to know, including science. If you skipped one too many classes, there are now tons of different educational applications to use even at home. For instance, Concave Mirror - Rays and Time wants to help you learn how, and why you can see yourself in the mirror.

The application is portable, meaning it can be carried on a thumb drive and launched from there, even on other computers. No impact is delivered to the target PC’s stability, because registry entries are not altered in the process. However, you must be sure Java Runtime Environment is installed, or grab it otherwise.

You’re taken into the simulation right from the start, with an info window showing up to let you know what you’re about to experience, and how. Most of the main window space represents an interactive simulation chamber, with simplistic, yet intuitive drawing of an object in front of a concave mirror, light ray directions, as well as the reflected image of the object.

Since real life has a lot more variables, testing is mostly done in ideal conditions. The application lets you select whether to show actual, or ideal representation. Additional view options allow you to toggle the visibility of the reflected image, show central, and parallel rays, and whether or not to beam multiple rays from the source.

You can interact with the mirror itself, as well as the object. Every minor change in position has a noticeable effect on the result. There’s also a set of playback controls for the simulation, as well as a speed slider. Sadly, only one burst of rays are emitted when you hit the “start” button, but you can gradually go back and forth through dedicated step controls.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Concave Mirror - Rays and Time is a simple, yet intuitive application which is sure to teach you the basics of reflection laws on a concave mirror. Simulation variables can be adjusted, with different view options for more details.