Question

If a piece of paper is placed at the position of a virtual image of a strong light source, will the paper burn after sufficient time? What happens if the image is real? What happens if the image is real but the source is virtual?

Answer 1

No, the paper will not burn even after sufficient time. This is because the piece of paper is placed at the position of a virtual image of a strong light source, so light rays are not actually converging at that point, but seem to converge. As no light rays are concentrating on the point, the paper will never burn.
Instead, if the paper is placed at the position of a real image, it will burn as the light rays are actually concentrating on the point. Also, when we have the real image of a virtual source, it will also cause the burning of paper due to same reason; the light rays are actually meeting at the point.