A flat mirror is the most popular type of household mirror. One of these mirrors is what you see every time you look in your bathroom mirror or at your reflection in the window. Because these mirrors reflect light, the image you see is exactly the same as the object that you are looking at. Convex and concave are the other types of mirrors most commonly used. Imagine a large, circular bowl instead of a flat piece. You can see how the bowl's surface curves in every direction when you look at it from the outside. This is how a convex reflector works. Convex mirrors bend light by reflecting the light. The further away a point from the center of the mirror, the more bent the light will be. A convex mirror's image is much smaller than one made in a flat mirror. A convex mirror has a wider field of view than a flat mirror because it can hold more images. They are therefore useful. These mirrors are useful for large fields of view. The convex passenger-side rearview mirror is an example. Many mirrors that say "Objects in the mirror are closer than their appearance" may be familiar to you. Mirrors make objects appear smaller, which makes them appear further away. These mirrors can also be used to secure buildings at corners. They allow people to see around corners before they reach the actual object.

A concave mirror is the other type of mirror you should inquire about. This mirror is opposite to the one in the glass bowl. A concave mirror bends light towards you. This mirror is slightly trickier. The mirror can be viewed as a piece of a larger sphere. If the mirror is viewed from a distance closer to the center of the sphere, the image will appear larger. You will see a smaller image if you look further away than the center. These mirrors are used daily with a very small curvature so that they are always in their "magnification" area. You will see an enlarged image. This type of mirror can be used to magnify an image. Concave mirrors can be used for makeup mirrors or dental mirrors.

A "parabolic reflector" is another type of mirror you might not have seen before. This mirror is not shaped like a sphere but instead of being shaped like one, it's shaped more like a paraboloid. Paraboloids possess the unique property of allowing parallel incoming light rays to bounce off the mirror at precisely one point. This is called the focus. They can be used to focus parallel light incoming and combine it. They can also be used to focus light in the opposite direction. For example, you can start from one point and project it along a straight line using a spotlight or the headlights on a car.