SCIENCE 10-Q2

LIGHT: MIRRORS & LENSES

MODULE 6
Refraction of Light in Lenses
Lesson 2

What I Need To Know

You learned in Grade 8 that refraction is the bending of light when it

travels from one medium to another of different optical densities.

A lens is a transparent material made of glass or plastic that refracts

light rays and focuses (or appear to focus) them at a point. Just like spherical
mirrors, there are two types of spherical lenses, the convex or converging lens,
and the concave or diverging lens. A magnifying glass is an example of a simple
convex lens.

What’s In

Instruction: Tell whether the statement describes a CONCAVE or a CONVEX lens. Write your answers on the space
provided.

____________1. Thicker in the center than edges

____________2. Also called a diverging lens
____________3. Parallel light rays converge after refraction
____________4. Parallel light rays diverge after refraction
____________5. Thinner in the center than edges

What’s New

This module will introduce you to the concepts of refraction and image formation in lenses. Shown below
are the basic parts of thin lenses,(both convex or converging lens and concave or diverging lens) and how rays of
light are refracted by each type of lens.

A converging lens causes parallel light rays to focus at a pint

called focal point or principal focus ,F of the lens. The distance between
the focal point and the lens is called the focal length of the lens.

A converging lens focuses parallel light

rays at the focal point.

A diverging lens causes parallel light rays to scatter after

passing through the material. The rays will appear to radiate a point
on the other side of the lens, which happens to be called the focal
point as well. However, the distance from the lens to this focal length
is denoted with a negative number since it is located in front of the
lens, the virtual side of the lens.
Parallel light rays scatter after passing
through a diverging lens.

Exercise Questions:
1.) In what direction does a focal ray from an object proceed, after passing through a converging lens?
________________________________________________________

2.) In what direction does a focal ray from an object proceed, after passing through a diverging lens?

_________________________________________________________

1
 What Is It

Image Formation in Lenses

To graphically determine the position and kind of image formed in lenses, the ray diagram can be used. The
following are the steps in ray diagramming.

A ray of light from the object (girl) parallel to the principal

axis is refracted passing through the principal focus F. This is ray 1 in
the illustration.

A ray of light passing through the exact center of the lens

(the vertex) continue to travel, and is not refracted. This is ray 2.

A ray of light passing through the focus in front of the lens

(this is the virtual focus) is refracted parallel to the principal axis. This
is ray3.

The intersection of the rays is the image point corresponding

to the object point. Since we started diagramming from the head of
the girl, the intersection of the refracted rays is also the head of the
girl image.

Question: How do we call an image in which light rays from one point
on the object actually cross at the location of the image and can be
projected onto a screen, a piece of film, or the retina of an eye?

Answer: ____________________________________________________________

Ray tracing also predicts the image location

and size for a concave or diverging lens. Ray 1 enters
parallel to the axis and is bent so that it appears to
originate from the focal point.

Ray 2 passes through the center of the lens

without changing path.

The two rays appear to come from a common

point, locating the upright image. The image is closer to
the lens that the object and smaller in height.

Analysis Question:
What type of image is formed by a concave lens?
Answer: ______________________________________________________________

2
 What’s More

A different case of image formation in convex lenses

can take place when the object is placed between the virtual F
and the lens.

Ray tracing predicts the image location ans size for an

object held closer to a converging lens than its focal length.
Ray 1 enters parallel to the axis and exits through the focal
point on the other side, while ray 2 passesthrough the center of
the lens without changing path.

The two rays continue to diverge on the other side of the lens
but both appear to come from a common point, locating the
upright, magnified, virtual image.

Light rays only appear to originate at a virtual image; they do not actually pass through that location in
space. A screen placed at the location of a virtual image will receive only diffuse light from the object, not focused
rays from the lens. Additionally, a screen placed on the opposite side of the lens will receive rays that are still
diverging, and so no image will be projected on it. We can see the magnified image with our eyes, because the lens
of the eye converges the rays into a real image projected on our retina. Finally, we note that a virtual image is
upright and larger than the object.

What I Have Learned

In the next activity, you will locate and describe the image formed by convex and concave lenses using the
steps in ray diagramming.

3
 What I Can Do
Summarize the characteristics and location of the images formed by lenses in the ray diagram by
completing the table below.

Location of Image
Object
Location Orientation Size Type of Image
(Upright or (Same, Reduced, (Real or Virtual)
Inverted) or Enlarged)
A. Convex
Lens
1. Beyond 2F
2. Between 2F
and F
3. Between F
and lens
B. Concave
Lens
1. Between F
and lens
(Farther)
2. Between F
and lens
(nearer)

4
5