Question

For what angle of incidence at the first mirror will this ray strike the midpoint of the second mirror (which is s=29.0cm long) after reflecting from the first mirror?

Answer 1

The question is missing a diagram of the ray reflection. I attached a diagram which comes from a similar question in the answer section. The full question should be as follows:

Two plane mirrors intersect at right angles. A laser beam strikes the first of them at a point d = 10.0cmfrom their point of intersection, as shown in the figure. For what angle of incidence at the first mirror will this ray strike the midpoint of the second mirror (which is s=29.0cm long) after reflecting from the first mirror?

Answer:

34.6°

Explanation:

To strike the midpoint of the second mirror, the ray light will have to travel half of the distance vertically

i.e. 29/2 = 14.5

We can solve this through trigonometry.

Let the angle between the ray and the vertical plane mirror is known as α

tan α = 10/14.5

α = $tan^{-1} (10/14.5)$ = 34.6°

The angle of incidence is the angle between the ray and the normal line of the mirror.

Let angle of incidence of first mirror be β

β = α = 34.6