The minimum number of rays required to locate the image formed by a spherical mirror is _____.
Two
An image point is located by finding where the reflected rays from a point on the object meet (or appear to meet). A single point in a plane is fixed by the intersection of at least two lines, so we need at least two reflected rays whose intersection marks the image of that object point.
In mirror ray-diagrams we usually have four standard rays to choose from (a ray parallel to the principal axis reflecting through the focus, a ray through the focus reflecting parallel to the axis, a ray through the centre of curvature retracing its path, and a ray to the pole reflecting symmetrically about the axis). Any two of these is sufficient to fix the image; the third or fourth ray only confirms the result.
Hence, the minimum number of rays required is Two.
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