Video narration
Why does your reflection in the bowl of a spoon turn upside down, then right side up when you bring it close? A spoon's inward curve resembles a concave mirror, though it isn't a perfect optical surface. A concave mirror sends reflected light toward a point called the focus. The mirror doesn't change. Your distance from the focus changes what the reflected rays do. Beyond the focus, rays meet again. Where light actually meets, it forms a real image-upside down, though its size and position change as you move the object. At the focus, reflected rays travel parallel, so there's no single, finite place for an image. Inside the focus, rays spread. Their backward extensions seem to meet behind the mirror, forming a virtual image-a place light doesn't actually meet. It looks upright and enlarged, explaining the spoon's close-up reflection.