A type of image created by diverging light rays. This type of image would form on the object side of a lens, if it formed at all. The opposite of a virtual image is a real image. See also concave lens
Light rays reproduce an object, called an image, by gathering a beam of light diverging from a point source and transforming it into a beam converging toward or diverging from another point; if the beam is diverging, it produces a virtual image.
an image formed at a point where the light appears to have come from
Such as seen in a mirror or through a magnifier. A virtual image has no real existence in space as does a real image from a lens. It does have a definite location, however, caused by the angles of divergence of the rays received by the eye. This can be shown by the common school experiment of placing a pin coincident with its mirror image behind a sheet of glass acting as a partial mirror. Its location can also be placed in design by extrapolating backwards to a focus. If a magnifier is used as it should be, with the object at its focus, the virtual image is at infinity. The same is true for a microscope focused for the relaxed eye. See distance of virtual image.
An image that does not exist in its perceived location; photons do not travel from, to, or through a virtual image. For example, all images seen in a plane (flat) mirror are virtual.
an image produced in an optical device, such as a lens or mirror, that is formed by the extension of diverging rays.
A database of files to be written to CD, created by dragging and dropping files into the main window. Can be used to write directly to CD, or to master a real ISO 9660 image to hard disk.
an image that cannot be projected on a screen. The image appears behind (mirror or lens).
Like a real image, but the rays don't actually cross again; they only appear to have come from the point on the image. Cf. real image.
a reflected optical image (as seen in a plane mirror)
an image from which diverging rays of light appear to come
an image that cannot be projected onto ground glass
an image that you cannot touch
a point from which Light rays appear to converge without actually doing so
the image formed when light only appears to come from the location of the image
As seen after refraction by a diverging lens or after reflection in a mirror. Virtual images are used in instruments such as microscopes, rangefinders, telescopes, etc.
The image produced by the apparent intersection of light rays.
An image created by a mirror or lens in such a way that light does not actually come from where the image appears to be.
refers to an image that appears to be suspended in front of the eye, that is, a representation of an actual object (source) formed by diverging rays of light which seem to originate from the image, but in reality do not cross at that position.
That image which appears in the space behind the hologram.
In optics, a virtual image is a representation of an actual (source) object that we see due to curving (converging or diverging) rays of light. No image can be captured using a screen where the virtual image seems to be, because, curved light rays don't draw the image on that plane (as opposed to a real image where curving rays actually draw a representation of the source object on a plane). A virtual image is the image of our face in a plane mirror.