Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) GCSE Physics Practice Exam

A real image is formed at a location where light rays actually converge and meet. When light rays come together and pass through a point after reflecting off a mirror or refracting through a lens, they produce a real image. This means that if you were to place a screen at this location, it would display the image clearly as it is constructed from actual light rays.

In contrast, a virtual image is created when light rays appear to diverge from a point, making it impossible to project the image onto a screen since the rays do not actually meet. Options mentioning opaque or convex images do not directly pertain to how images are formed based on the behavior of light rays. An opaque image isn’t a standard term in optics, and while a convex lens can form real images, not all images formed by convex lenses are real. The distinction lies in whether the light rays physically meet, which clearly defines a real image.