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Class 12 Physics (India)
Course: Class 12 Physics (India) > Unit 9
Lesson 6: Refraction in thin lenses- Convex lenses
- Convex lens examples
- Concave lenses
- Paths of light rays through spherical lenses
- Image formation in spherical lenses
- Thin lens intuition
- Thin lens formula
- Solved example on lens formula
- Using magnification formula for lenses
- Using the lens formula
- Convex and concave lenses
- Thin lenses questions
- Virtual Object
- Thin lens formula - virtual object
- Worked example: Image formed by multiple lenses
- Image formed by multiple lenses
- Lens makers formula
- Solved example: Lens makers formula
- Sign convention: radii of curvature (lens maker's formula)
- Power of lens
- Power of lens
- Thin lenses in contact
- Thin lens sign conventions
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Thin lens sign conventions
Have you ever wondered why some people need glasses and others don’t? It’s because of the way light is focussed by the lens in your eye. This lens, like magnifying glasses, eyeglasses, and contact lenses, is considered a thin lens.
How lenses interact with light
Lenses bend light that passes through them. The direction and amount that the light bends depends on the curvature of the lens, the material the lens is made of, and the material in which the lens is immersed (for now, we’ll assume this is just air). If both sides of the lens curve outward, it is called a converging lens, and it will bend light from distant objects inwards toward a single point, called the focal point.
If both sides of the lens curve inward, it is called a diverging lens, and light from distant objects will bend outwards. Because the light is not being bent toward a single point, the focal point is not as obvious as it was in the case of the converging lens. We have to take the bent rays, and follow them back to the side of the lens that the light came from to make them come together and find the focal point. That means that the focal point is on the same side of the lens as the light rays were coming from.
In actuality, there are two focal points for every lens, the same distance from the lens, on opposite sides. The distance from the lens to the focal point is called the focal length. For converging lenses, the focal length is always positive, while diverging lenses always have negative focal lengths. However, these conventions are arbitrary, and physicists could just as easily have made the signs opposite.
Thin lens rules and sign conventions
Now that we know how to find the focal point of a lens using a distant object, we can see what happens to light rays from objects that are closer to the lens. Let’s say we have a cat standing on one side of a converging lens. We know that there are two focal points, one on each side of the lens, and that if we take the focal length of the point across the lens from the cat as positive, then the one on the same side as the cat is negative.
In this case, the image of the cat will be across the lens from the actual cat, and it will be upside-down. Just as with the focal point, if the image is on the opposite side of the lens from the cat, the distance from the lens to the image will be positive.
What if the cat is closer to the lens than the focal point is? That is, what if the object distance is smaller than the focal length? The image will be on the same side of the lens from the object, and will be upright. The image will also be larger than the object. That means that the image distance will be negative.
How about a diverging lens? This time, the image is not affected by whether the object is inside or outside the focal point. The image will always be on the same side of the lens as the object, upright, and smaller than the object. In this case the image distance for the diverging lens is negative.
Magnification refers to a change in size of the object. If the magnification is greater than one, the image is larger than the object, but if the magnification is smaller than one the image is smaller than the object. For example, if the magnification is one half, then the image appears to be half the size of the object. The sign of the magnification tells us the orientation of the image. If the sign is positive, then the image is upright. If the sign is negative, then the image is upside-down. In the examples above, we can see that amount by which an object will be magnified changes depending on its distance from the focal point.
Consider the following
How might glasses help someone who can’t focus on distant objects? How might they help someone who can’t focus on close-up objects?
If you are using a magnifying glass to read fine print (object), and you move it too far from the page, the text looks like it has flipped over and gotten smaller (image). It turns out that this is because a magnifying glass is a converging lens and identifying the object distance where the image flips is one way of finding the focal length.
Ever wonder how a camera lens focuses? The lens has a fixed focal length, but the distance to the object changes as you point the camera at different things. The distance between the lens and the sensor or film strip has to change to make sure the sensor is sitting at the correct image distance.
Want to join the conversation?
- I want to know that a.. . convex lens forms virtual or real image
And
Concave lens forms virtual image or not?? ?(5 votes) - I am very confused about where is light is focused by the lens? Before the retina? On the retina? Behind the retina? I figure the lens must focus light before hitting the retina in order to produce an upside down image (focal point in front of retina). Is this correct? If the focal point of an object were on the retina, then I do not understand how an image could form because all of the rays of light from the image are focused on just one singular point.
Is my thinking flawed in any way? A related question: does an image appear at the focal point or not? and Why does virtually every textbook say that the lens focuses light on the retina, but the image is upside down? I am having trouble reconciling these two points.(5 votes)- If the object is an extended object and not a point object then the image formed on the retina is NOT a point image. All the light rays coming from one point on the image are focused on one point on the focal plane i.e. the retina. Due to the power of accommodation of the human eye, the lens changes its focal length for objects at different distances to ensure that the image is ALWAYS formed at the focus of the changed lens and thus on the retina.(5 votes)
- for the practice question where we are asked to calculate the height of the apple image what is the equation used? i do not recognize it since it incorporates h, d, and f into the same equation.(4 votes)
- Why is the cat image on the same side of the cat if the cat is closer to the lens than the focal point?
Doesn't light have to pass through the lens for any change in light direction to occur? So the image would have to be on the opposite side of the lens?(2 votes)- Fromof the concave lens video ( 2:58https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/physical-processes/thin-lenses/v/concave-lenses):
The cat appears on the same side of the lens as the image when there is an observer on the opposite side of the lens, since the light from each point on the cat diverges -- it makes it look like there's a point behind the lens (relative to the observer) where there is a smaller cat (the cat appears smaller).(2 votes)
- "What if the cat is closer to the lens than the focal point is? That is, what if the object distance is smaller than the focal length? The image will be on the same side of the lens from the object, and will be upright. The image will also be larger than the object. That means that the image distance will be negative."
The picture given for this is wrong.
Please correct that.(1 vote) - I'm just wondering why the diverging lens image under "thin lens rules and sign conventions" shows one of the light rays converging. (3rd image) Based on how light interacts with diverging lenses, the light ray show be going outward (away from the focal point of the lens).(1 vote)
- What happens to a lens when the curve is made more severe? Take a negative meniscus lens, when the curve is deepened, what happens to the appearance of things when you look through it?(1 vote)
- I am curious that our eyes' lenses are convex lenses. So that means the image is formed inside of our eyes, retina. However, if we use a diverging lens, the image forms at the negative focal length. How do our eyes perceive images from the negative focal length?(1 vote)
- If it is desired to obtain a virtual, erect and enlarged image by a converging lens, then will we take the focal length negative or positive?(1 vote)