472 Unit 3:OPTICS
GROUP 'B' Explain why a mirror cannot give rise to
Answer the following questions.
1. (a) What is dispersion of light? (b)
Distinguish between chromatic aberration
and spherical aberration. (c) An
achromatic lens having a focal length of +
20 cm is to be constructed by combining a
crown lens with a flint glass lens. What
must be the focal length of the component
lenses if the dispersive powers of the
crown and flint glasses are 0.0158 and
0.0324 respectively? Ans: 10.2 cm, – 21 cm
2. (a) What is a dispersive medium?
(b)Explain the meaning of achromatism
in a lens. (c) A ray of white light in
incident at an angle of 35° on a prism of
angle 60°. If the prism is made of crown
glass of refractive index, µv = 1.538 and
µr = 1.52, find the angle of dispersion.
Ans: 2.9°
3. (a) Define angular dispersion and
dispersive power. (b) On what factors this
property depends?(c) Find the angular
dispersion produced by a thin prism of
angle 5° having a refractive index of 1.5
for red light and 1.6 for violet light.
Ans: 0.5°
4. (a) How is dispersive power related to
refractive index of the material? (b)Which
one of blue and red lights will be deviated
more by a prism? Give reason for your
answer. (c) A prism of crown glass with
refracting angle of 5° and mean refractive
index 1.51 is combined with one flint
glass of refractive index 1.65 to produce
no mean deviation. Find the angle of the
flint glass prism.  Ans: 3.92
GROUP 'C'
Give long answer to the following
questions.
1. (a) Define pure and impure spectrum. (b)
Draw an outline sketch to show the
chromatic aberration in the case of a lens.
How can achromatism be achieved? (c)
The dispersive powers for crown and flint
glass are 0.013 and 0.026 respectively.
Calculate the focal lengths of the lenses
which form an achromatic doublet of focal
length 80 cm, when placed in contact. (d)
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PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICS — XI
chromatic aberration? 
Ans: 40 cm, −80 cm
2. (a) What do you mean by dispersive
power? (b) Derive the relation for the
dispersive power. (c) An achromatic
converging lens of mean focal length 40
cm is made by combining two lenses of
different materials. If the dispersive
powers of the two lenses are in the ratio
1:3, find the focal lengths of each lens. (d)
Dispersion is caused by refraction and not
by reflection, why?
Ans: 26.7 cm, − 80 cm
3. (a) What do you mean by chromatic
aberration? (b) Show that for a lens the
chromatic aberration is the product of
dispersive power and its mean focal
length. (c)The refractive indices of a flint
glass for violet and red light are 1.671 and
1.642 respectively. Calculate the
dispersive power of the glass. (d) How
chromatic aberration can be removed?
Ans: 0.044
4. (a) What is chromatic aberration in lens?
(b) Deduce the condition for achromatism
in two thin lenses in contact. (c) State the
necessary conditions for the production of
a pure spectrum. (d)An achromatic lens
of focal length +30cm is to be constructed
by combining a crown glass lensand flint
glass lens. What must be the focal lengths
of the component lenses if the dispersive
powers of crown glass and flint glass are
0.018 and 0.027 respectively?
Ans: 10 cm, −15 cm 
GROUP 'D'
Additional Questions
1. What is the cause of dispersion of light? 
2. Which out of blue and red light will be
deviated more by a prism and why?
3. A spherical mirror cannot give rise to
chromatic aberration. Why? 
4. Does the refractive index depend upon the
wavelength of light? If yes, how? 
5. The sun looks red at sunrise and sunset.
Why? 
6. Why there is no dispersion of
monochromatic light?