Question
What is meant by the optical image of an object?
Solution
When a beam of rays starting from a point source of light suffers a change in direction due to reflection or refraction, and the reflected or refracted rays actually converge or appear to diverge from another point, then the second point is called the optical image of the first point.
For example, when we look into a plane mirror, we see our image behind the mirror. When we look at an object through a telescope, the object is seen much closer than its actual position.
This new position of the object, formed due to reflection or refraction of light, is the optical image of the object.
