WEEKLY LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET

Science 10 Quarter 2 Week 4

OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS

Name: ___________________________________________ Section: ____________________

Most Essential Learning Competency (MELC)
Identify ways in which the properties of mirrors and lenses determine their use in optical
instruments (e.g., cameras and binoculars) (S10FEIIh-52)
Learning Objective:
1. Describe the different parts of the eye.
2. Identify the different eye defects.
3. Describe how eye defects are corrected using lenses.
4. Compare the similarities and differences between the principle of the camera and the
human eye.
5. Describe how images are formed in optical devices that magnifies the images of the objects.
Time Allotment: 4 hours

Key Concepts
Optical instruments such as telescope, microscope, binocular, even a magnifying glass and a
camera are based on the concepts of optics. They use mirrors and lenses to reflect and refract light
and form images.
Another optical instrument that is very important for us that, like the instruments mentioned
above, uses the concepts of optics are our eyes.
The Human Eye
The human eye is one of the most important part of our body, as it collects light and forms
images of our surroundings. Figure 1 shows the essential parts of the human eye, considered as
an optical system.

Young, Hugh D, et al. University Physics: With Modern Physics. 13th

ed., Boston, Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 1142
Figure 1. Diagram of the Eye.

The inside of the eye is filled with vitreous humor, a transparent gel-like substance with an
index of refraction n = 1.337. Light enters this enclosed volume through a tough, transparent
membrane called the cornea and a capsule containing a fibrous jelly called the lens. Found
between the cornea and lens is a watery fluid called the aqueous humor with n = 1.336. The iris,
which is the colored part of our eye, controls the amount of light entering the eye by adjusting
automatically. The hole in the iris through which light passes, the pupil, is black because no light

Author: IVAN C. DANO

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is reflected from it, and very little light is reflected out from the interior of the eye. The retina is
on the curved rear surface of the eye and consists of a complex array of nerves and receptors
known as rods and cones which act to change light energy into electrical signals that travel along
the nerves to the brain, where image is processed. Fovea, a small area found at the center of the
retina, is where the cones are closely packed and the sharpest image and best color discrimination
are found.
To see the objects clearly, the image, which is a real image, must be formed exactly at the
location of the retina. For this to happen, the eye adjusts to different object distances by changing
the focal length of the lens. The ciliary muscles accomplish this by changing the curvature of the
lens so that its focal length is changed. The object at infinity is sharply focused when the ciliary
muscle is relaxed, and the lens is thin. On the other hand, for a sharp imaging of close objects on
the retina, the ciliary muscle contracts causing the center of the lens to thicken, thus shortening
its focal length. This process of focusing adjustment is called accommodation (Figure 2).

Giancoli, Douglas C, Physics: Principles with Applications. 7th ed., Harlow,

Pearson Education, 2016, pp. 719
Figure 2. Accommodation by the Normal Eye (a) Lens Relaxed and (b) Lens Thickened.

The extremes of the range over which distinct vision is possible is known as the far point and
the near point of the eye. Far point refers to the farthest distance at which an object can be seen
clearly, which for a normal eye is at infinity. On the other hand, the closest distance at which the
eye can focus clearly is the near point of the eye which is typically 25 cm. Children can focus on
objects as close as 10 cm, but this ability to accommodate decreases as the person grows older
because the crystalline lens grows throughout a person’s life which makes it harder for the ciliary
muscles to distort the lens. This decline of the near point is known as presbyopia.
Defects of Vision
1. Nearsightedness or Myopia
It is an eye defect that is caused by an eyeball that is too long, or due to the cornea that
is too great. The image of distant images is focused in front of the retina, this results to the
eye that can focus only on nearby objects and the far point is not infinity but some shorter
distance.

Young, Hugh D, et al. University Physics: With Modern

Physics. 13th ed., Boston, Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 1143
Figure 3. Myopic Eye.

A myopic eye can be corrected using a diverging lens to move the image closer to the eye
than the actual object.

Author: IVAN C. DANO

School/Station: AGAY NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
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email address: ivan.dano@deped.gov.ph
 Young, Hugh D, et al. University Physics: With Modern Physics. 13th ed., Boston, Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 1144

Figure 4. Correcting Myopic Eye (a) Uncorrected myopic eye and (b) Corrected myopic eye.

2. Farsightedness or Hyperopia
It is an eye defect that is caused by an eyeball that is too short or by a cornea that is not
sufficiently curved. The image of an infinitely distant object is behind the retina, this results
to the eye that cannot focus on nearby objects. Distant objects are usually seen clearly, but
the near point is somewhat greater than the “normal” 25 cm, making reading difficult. To
correct this, we need a lens that forms an image at or beyond the near point, that can be
accomplished by a converging lens.

Young, Hugh D, et al. University Physics: With Modern Physics.

13th ed., Boston, Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 1144
Figure 5. Correcting Hyperopic Eye (a) Uncorrected hyperopic eye and (b) Corrected hyperopic eye.

The lens places the object farther away to a point where a sharp retinal image can be
formed.
3. Astigmatism
It is a type of eye defect in which the surface of the cornea is not spherical but rather more
sharply curved in one plane than in another. An astigmatic eye may focus rays in one plane,
such as the vertical plane, at a shorter distance than it does for rays in a horizontal plane.
This, however, can be corrected using a lens with a cylindrical surface.

Young, Hugh D, et al. University Physics: With Modern Physics.

13th ed., Boston, Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 1145
Figure 6. Correcting Astigmatism

Author: IVAN C. DANO

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Exercises / Activities
Activity No. 1. Words in the Box
What you need: Pen and Paper
What to do
Direction: For each item, fill in the blanks with the appropriate words that can be chosen
inside the box. Write your chosen answer on your paper.

vitreous humor iris cylindrical lens pupil aqueous humor

retina fovea accommodation far point astigmatism
far point myopia ciliary muscles near point diverging lens
hyperopia converging lens virtual image lens real image

1. The light that enters the eye is focused on the (a)__________ to form a/an (b)________.
2. _______ automatically adjust to regulate the amount of light that enters the eye.
3. The eye is filled with a transparent gel-like substance called the _____________.
4. ______________ is the process of changing the focal length of the lens to focus on objects
of different distances.
5. Vision is more acute in a small central region in the retina, called the _________, where
the cones are closely packed.
6. For the eye to adjust on different object distances, the (a)______ relaxes and/or contracts
to change the curvature of the (b)______ so that its focal length is changed.
7. ________ refers to the closest distance at which the eye can focus clearly.
8. (a)______ is caused by an out-of-round cornea or lens so that point objects are focused
as short lines, which blurs the image. However, this can be corrected with the use of a
compensating (b)______.
9. In (a)______, the eye can focus only on nearby objects, but can be corrected using a
(b)______.
10. In (a)______, the eye cannot focus on nearby objects. It is corrected by a (b)______.

Activity No. 2. A Pinhole Camera

What you need: Empty powdered milk can (11 cm long and 10 cm in diameter), Small nail
and hammer, Black cartolina (about 35 cm x 50 cm), Tape or paste, Wax paper about
(about 14 cm2) or a Tissue Paper, Paper, Pen
What to do
Procedure:
1. Get a milk can and remove its cover. Make a tiny hole in the center using a small nail and
hammer. (Figure 7)

Figure 7
2. Make a tiny tube out of a black cartolina. The tube must fit into the can. Cover one end
of the tube with wax paper. (Figure 8)

Figure 8

Author: IVAN C. DANO

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 3. Slide the covered end of the black tube into the can. You now have a pinhole camera.
(Figure 9)

Figure 9
4. Point the pinhole to a distant object such as a tree or building. View this object through
the open end of the black tube. Move the tube to get a clearer view of the object on the
wax paper. The wax paper serves as the screen for the camera.

Guide Questions
Answer the following questions. Write your answer on your paper.
1. What is formed on the wax paper?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
2. Compare what you see on the wax paper with the object to which the camera is pointed.

Figure 10
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
Adapted from DepEd, Project EASE: Physics, Module 4: Optical Instruments, pp. 7-8

Activity No. 3. The Camera and The Eye

What you need: Paper, Pen
What to do
A. Direction. Read the topic about the camera below. Then, complete the table that follows by
filling in the blanks the similarities of the parts of the eye and the camera.
The Camera
The basic elements of the camera are a light tight box, a converging lens, a shutter to open
the lens for a prescribed length of time, and a light sensitive recording medium such as an
electronic detector called a charged-coupled device (CCD) array for a digital camera and a
photographic film for an older camera. The lens of the camera forms an inverted real image on the
recording medium of the object being photographed.

Young, Hugh D, et al. University Physics: With Modern Physics. 13th

ed., Boston, Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 1139
Figure 11. Key elements of a digital camera.

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 The position of the recording medium coincides with the position of the real image formed by
the lens when the camera is in proper focus. The result is a photograph with a sharp image. The
image distance increases as the object distance decreases with a converging lens. Hence, in
focusing the camera, we move the lens farther from the film for a nearby object and closer to the
film for a distant object.
The optical behavior of the camera is similar to that of the human eye. In the camera, the
shutter eliminates unnecessary light from the entering into the film, just like our eyelids. The
diaphragm of the camera regulates the amount of light that enters through the aperture, just like
how the iris regulates the light that enters through the pupil. Just like the lens in our eyes, the
lenses of the camera form a real and inverted image and then projects this image to the film, just
like how the images are projected to our retina.

Parts of the Eye Parts of the Camera Function

(1)______ diaphragm Regulates the amount of light
eyelids (2)______ (3)_______________________________
It is where the light that enters the eye is
(4)______ Recording medium
projected as an image.
Crystalline lens (5)______ Refracts the light as it enters.
B. Direction. On your paper, write two differences between the camera and the eye.
________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Activity No. 4. Fill Me Up!

What you need: Paper, Pen
What to do
Direction: Read the discussions below about some optical commonly know optical
instruments. Then, complete the statements that follows by filling the appropriate missing
words. Write your answer on your paper.

The Magnifying Glass

How large an object appears on our sight depends on the size of the image it makes on the
retina. This, in turn, depends on the angle subtended by the object at the eye.

Giancoli, Douglas C, Physics: Principles with Applications. 7th ed., Harlow,

Pearson Education, 2016, pp. 722

Figure 12. The angle that the object subtends in (a) is greater than in (b).

To examine the detail of an object, we bring it closer to our eyes. However, our eyes can only
accommodate only up to its near point, which is normally 25 cm from our eyes. Moving an object
closer than this point makes it impossible for us to view the object clearly. A simple magnifier, or
magnifying glass, is a converging lens that places an object closer to our eye so that it subtends
a greater angle.

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 Young, Hugh D, et al. University Physics: With Modern Physics. 13th ed., Boston, Addison-Wesley, 2012,
pp. 1146

Figure 13. The object viewed through (a) an unaided eye and (b) a magnifying glass.

In Figure 13b, if the object is placed at a focal point or just within it and if the eye is to focus
on it, the converging lens will produce an image that is virtual and is at least 25 cm from the eye.
But if the ciliary muscle of the eye is relaxed and the object is exactly at the focal point, the virtual
image produced will be at infinity. A comparison of figures a and b on Figure 13 reveals that the
angle the object subtends at the eye is much larger when the magnifier is used which is the reason
why the object appears bigger.
Telescopes
Telescopes are optical devices that are used to view objects that are very far away, usually at
infinity. Unlike the magnifying glass, a telescope uses at least two lenses to magnify the image of
a distant object.
There are several types of telescope, one is an astronomical telescope, also called as
refracting telescope, because it uses lens as an objective. The lens closest to the object, the
objective lens with a focal length fO, forms a real image I1 of the distant object in the plane of its
focal point FO, or near it if the object is not distant. The second lens, the eyepiece with a focal
length fe, acts as a magnifier that the image I1 formed by the objective lens to produce a second,
greatly magnified image, I2, which is virtual and inverted. If the viewing eye is relaxed, the eyepiece
is adjusted so the image I2 is at infinity. Then the real image I1 is at the focal point F’e of the
eyepiece, and the distance between the lenses is fO + fe for an object at infinity.

Giancoli, Douglas C, Physics: Principles with Applications. 7th ed.,

Harlow, Pearson Education, 2016, pp. 724

Figure 14. Astronomical telescope (refracting).

The objective lens must be large to allow in as much light as possible for an astronomical
telescope to produce bright images of faint stars. But the production of large lenses is very difficult,
hence, the reflecting telescope uses curved mirror as the objective instead of lenses. Unlike

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lenses, mirrors only have one surface to be ground and can be supported along its entire surface.
This scheme has many advantages for large telescopes. Mirrors are inherently free from chromatic
aberrations (a distortion of image which is the result of light of different colors having different
speeds and hence different refraction in the lens), and spherical aberrations (a distortion of image
which is the result from light that passes through the edges of the lens and focuses at a slightly
different place from where light passing near the center of the lens focuses) are easier to correct
than with a lens.

Hewitt, Paul G. Conceptual Physics. 12th ed.,

Harlow, Essex, Pearson Education, 2015, pp 537

Figure 15. (a) Chromatic Aberration (b) Spherical Aberration.

One challenge in designing a reflective telescope is that the image is formed in front of the
objective mirror. To solve this, Isaac Newton introduced a design where a flat secondary mirror
oriented at 45O to the optic axis will be placed in front of the objective mirror to cause the image
to be formed in a hole on the side of the telescope, where it can be magnified by an eyepiece (Figure
16b). Another design uses a secondary mirror that causes the focused light to pass through a hole
in the objective mirror (Figure 16c).

Young, Hugh D, et al. University Physics: With Modern Physics. 13th ed., Boston,
Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 1151

Figure 16. Designs of reflective telescope (a) Camera instead of a secondary mirror (b) Newtonian focus and (c)
Cassegrainian focus.

Microscope
A compound microscope also has an objective that forms an image that is viewed through
the eyepiece, but, unlike the telescope, a microscope is used to view small objects close at hand.
The object O to be viewed is placed just beyond the first focal point FO of the objective, which is a
converging lens that forms a real and enlarged image I1 and is formed quite far from the objective
lens. The eyepiece is positioned so that this image I1 is near the eyepiece focal point Fe. The image
I1 is then magnified by the eyepiece into a very large, inverted image, I2, which is seen by the eye.
The position of this image I2 may be anywhere between the near and far points of the eye.

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 Young, Hugh D, et al. University Physics: With Modern Physics. 13th ed.,
Boston, Addison-Wesley, 2012, pp. 1148

Figure 17. A Compound Microscope.

Part A. The Magnifier

To observe an object, we move it closer to our eyes to increase its apparent size. But our
eyes cannot focus on objects that are closer than the (1)______, which is normally 25 cm from
the eye. A magnifier, also known as the magnifying lens or a simple magnifier, uses a (2)______
lens that will enable us to move an object closer to our eye. This lens forms a (3)______ image
that is (4)______ in size and farther from the eye than the object itself. The object can then be
moved closer to the eye. The image formed is most comfortable to view when it is placed at
(5)______, so that the (6)______ of the eye is relaxed, this means that the object is placed at
the (7)______ of the magnifier.

Part B. The Telescope

A telescope is an optical device that is used to view objects that is usually at (8)______.
There are several types of it, one is the (9)______ that uses a lens as an objective that forms a
(10)______ image. The second lens, which is at the opposite side of the telescope, is the
(11)______ which magnifies the image formed by the objective to produce a greatly magnified
image that is (12)______ and inverted. For most comfortable viewing by a normal eye, the
image formed by the objective must be at the (13)______ of the eyepiece, and so the enlarged
image formed by the eyepiece is at (14)______.
Another type of telescope is a reflecting telescope, which is common to large telescopes,
which uses a curved (15)______ as the objective instead of the lens.

Part C. The Microscope

When we need greater magnification than what we can get from a simple magnifier, the
instrument that we usually use is the microscope. This optical instrument is used to magnify
objects that are very close. The object is placed just beyond the focal point of the (16)______,
a converging lens that forms a (17)______ image that is larger than the actual size of the object
under observation. In a properly designed instrument, the image formed by the objective lies

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 just inside or near the (18)______ of the eyepiece, a (19)______ lens that acts as a simple
magnifier and forms a very large (20)______ image, that is seen by the eye and is inverted.
Reflection
Direction: Discuss the following items briefly and concisely. Write your answers on your paper.
1. A converging lens produces an upside-down image. Our eyes have a converging lens. Does
this mean the images we see are upside down on our retina? Explain your answer.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________

References for learners:

Young, Hugh D, et al. University Physics : With Modern Physics. 13th ed., Boston, Addison-
Wesley, 2012.
Giancoli, Douglas C. Physics : Principles with Applications. 7th ed., Harlow, Pearson
Education, 2016.
Hewitt, Paul G. Conceptual Physics. 12th ed., Harlow, Essex, Pearson Education, 2015.
DepEd. Project EASE: Physics.
DepEd. Science 10
Foundation, CK-12. 2020. "CK12-Foundation". CK-12 Foundation. Accessed on October 26,
2020. Retrieved from: https://flexbooks.ck12.org/cbook/ck-12-middle-school-physical-
science-flexbook-2.0/section/19.9/primary/lesson/optical-instruments-ms-ps.
"3: Optical Instruments". 2017. Physics Libretexts. Accessed on October 26, 2020. Retrieved
from:https://phys.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Optics/Book%3A_Geometric_Optics_(Tat
um)/03%3A_Optical_Instruments.
"Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics And You - Activities In Optics". 2020.
Micro.Magnet.Fsu.Edu. Accessed on October 26, 2020. Retrieved from:
https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/activities/teachers/index.html.

Answer Key
Activity 1 Activity 4
1. (a) retina 1. Near point
(b) real image 2. Converging
2. Iris 3. Virtual
3. vitreous humor 4. Larger
4. accommodation 5. Infinity
5. fovea 6. ciliary muscle
6. (a) ciliary muscle 7. focal point
(b) lens 8. infinity
7. near point 9. refracting telescope
8. (a) astigmatism 10. real
(b) cylindrical lens 11. eyepiece
9. (a) myopia 12. virtual
(b) diverging lens 13. focal point
10. (a) hyperopia 14. infinity
(b) converging lens 15. mirror
Activity 3 16. objective
1. iris
17. real
2. shutter
18. focal point
3. eliminates unnecessary light from entering
19. converging
4. retina
20. virtual
5. lens

Author: IVAN C. DANO

School/Station: AGAY NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
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Division: AGUSAN DEL NORTE
email address: ivan.dano@deped.gov.ph