Concave mirrors have the effect of concentrating light. According to the principle of light reflection, when parallel light rays irradiate on a concave mirror, the reflected light rays will converge to the focal point of the concave mirror. This is because the surface of the concave mirror is concave, and the reflected light rays follow the law of reflection, resulting in the light rays concentrating at a certain point in front of the mirror to form a light spot or a high temperature area. The functions of concave mirrors include solar energy utilization, lighting equipment, medical examination instruments, astronomical observation equipment, optical experiments and scientific research. Specific as follows:

1, solar energy utilization: solar cooker, solar water heater and other equipment using concave mirrors of the concentrated light characteristics of the dispersed sunlight concentrated reflection to the focal point, so that the focal point of the location of the temperature rises significantly, used to heat water or cooking food.

2, lighting equipment: flashlights, car headlights and other lighting devices installed inside the concave mirror, the bulb will be placed in the concave mirror focus position, so that the light emitted by the bulb through the mirror reflection to form a parallel beam of light, to improve the concentration of illumination and irradiation distance.

3, medical examination instruments: otorhinolaryngology commonly used frontal mirror is a concave mirror, the doctor by adjusting the angle of the frontal mirror, the external light will be reflected and convergence to the patient’s ear canal or nasal cavity, to provide local illumination, easy to observe the lesion parts.

4, astronomical observation equipment: large astronomical telescopes often use concave mirrors as the primary mirror, through the reflection of light to focus the light of distant celestial bodies, so that observers can clearly capture the image of the celestial bodies, to avoid the chromatic aberration problem of refractive telescopes.

5, optical experiments and scientific research: in physical experiments, concave mirrors are used to demonstrate the principle of reflection and focusing of light; in the field of laser processing, concave mirrors can converge the laser beam to improve the energy density, which can be used for cutting, welding and other material processing.

In daily life, looking directly at the focused glare of concave mirrors may damage your eyes, especially with high-temperature equipment such as solar ovens, and avoid touching the focus area with your hands to prevent burns. Concave mirrors for automobile headlights need to be cleaned and maintained on a regular basis to ensure the reflection effect; concave mirrors for astronomical telescopes have precision mirrors, and special tools are required for cleaning to prevent scratching the mirrors and affecting the observation effect. In addition, the imaging principle of concave mirrors is different from that of convex mirrors, which are often used to expand the field of vision, such as road turning mirrors, automobile mirrors, etc., and the functions of the two should not be confused.