UNDERSTANDING

LENSES

FOCAL POINT &

FOCAL LENGTH
FOR A LENS

UNDERSTANDING
LENSES

POWER LENS

IMAGE FORM BY LENSES

Types of lenses

Convex lenses

Concave lenses

FOCAL POINT &

FOCAL LENGTH
Focal Point:
Point on the principal axis where all rays are close
and parallel to the axis that converge to it after
passing through a convex lens, or appear to
diverge from it after passing through a concave
lens.
Focal Length:
The distance between the focal point and the
optical centre.

Power Of Lens
Power Of Lens = 1
f
The unit is measured in Dioptre, D
Power of the convex lense is positive,
and power for concave lens is negative.

EXAMPLE
The focus length of a concave lens
is given as 29cm. What is the
power of the lens?

MAGNIFICATION
The simplest way to compare the

image with object is by ratio of the size.

This ratio is the linear magnification.
Linear magnification,m = Size of image
Size of object

 The ratio of image size to object size is

the same as the ratio of image distance

to object distance.
Size of image = Image distance (v)
Size of object Object distance (u)

m = h1 = v
ho u

EXAMPLE
Figure shows the position of an image, I
of an object, O formed by convex lens.
The height of the object, O is 5cm. If OL
= 20cm and OI = 66 cm, what is the
height of the image
66cm

O
20cm

LENS FORMULA (convex lens)

1+1=1
u v f
f - focal length,
u - object distance,
v - image distance,

Sign

Positive value
(+ )

Negative
Value (-)

Real

Virtual

Real

Virtual

Convex lense Concave lense

EXAMPLE
An object is placed in front of a convex
lens with focal length of 10cm. Find the
image position, and magnification of
the image formed when the object
distance is 15cm.

MAGNIFICATION

UNDERSTANDING
LENSES

LENS FORMULA

 DO PRACTICE 5.4, QUESTIONS 1-4

ON PAGE 159 FROM YOUR TEXT
BOOK.