What Are Paraxial and Marginal Rays?

Paraxial rays are nothing but a set of incident rays on the mirrors which lie very close to the principal axis. Whereas marginal rays are the set of incident rays of light on the mirror that hit the mirror towards its edges with respect to the pole of the mirror.

What is marginal ray?

1.7, the ray that passes from the center of the object, at the maximum aperture of the lens, is normally known as the marginal ray. ... It therefore passes through the edge of the aperture stop. Conventionally, this ray is in the y-z plane, usually called the meridian plane.

What is meant by paraxial rays in physics?

Such rays are called 'paraxial rays'. ... We can define it as: A ray which makes a small angle (θ) to the optical axis of the system and lies close to the axis throughout the system. Marginal rays are the rays which pass through the maximum aperture of the spherical mirror.