Geometric Optics

By Shoumit Sarkar

1 PURPOSE
In this experiment we will be investigating converging and diverging lens. There 3
parts to this experiment.
1. Observe how diverging and converging lens affect rays of light
2. Find focal length of converging and diverging lens
3. Find focal length of a real lens

2 PROCEDURE
Experiment 1
1. Make sure light rays emerging from ray box are parallel
2. Place ray box on white sheet of paper and place a mirror block
3. When the parallel light rays hit the flat side observe how they are redirected
while maintaining their parallel structure.
4. When the parallel light rays hit the concave side observe how rays are
redirected to a focal point and from there rediverge.
5. When the parallel light rays hit the convex side observe how rays diverge
appear to come from an imaginary focus behind the surface
Experiment 2
1. Find focal length of converging lens
a. Place a converging lens in front of parallel light rays from the ray box
b. The light rays should converge at a point.
c. Measure the distance from this convergence point and the center of
the lens. This is the focal length of the converging lens
2. Find focal length of diverging lens
a. Place a diverging lens in front of parallel light rays from the ray box
b. Light rays should diverge away. Trace these rays back to the
intersection point and measure distance between this point and the
center of the lens. This should be a negative value
3. Find focal length of same diverging lens using a different method

a. Place converging lens in path of light rays and form a focused beam.
b. The focus is now the new object
c. Place a diverging lens on two different positions (Figure 1) and with the
new image from the object, determine the focal length of the
diverging lens.

Figure 1: 2 different positions of placement of the diverging lens

Experiment 3
1. Place optical source on one side of bench and place white screen on opposite
side.
2. Place a converging lens between the screen and optical source
3. Move the lens left and right until a focused image of the source is projected
on the screen. Note the object and image distance
4. For the 2nd part of the experiment, find the 2 spots where the lens produces a
focused image and find

d .

is the distance between the object and

the white screen. (Figure 2)

Figure 2: Finding the focus of a real lens

3 DATA
Experiment 2

1 1 1
+ =
do di f
Focal length of converging lens = 13.5 cm
Focal length of diverging lens using 1 st method = -11.5cm
Focal length of diverging lens using 2 nd method, position 1 =
1

f =(

1 1
1
1
+ ) =(
+
) =8.43 cm
do di
9.2 4.4

Focal length of diverging lens using 2 nd method, position 2 =

1

f =(

1 1
1
1
+ ) =(
+
) =12cm
do di
8 4.8

Experiment 3
Using the first method, focus of the real lens,
1

f =(

1 1
1
1
+ ) =(
+
) =19.6 cm
do di
11084.5 84.5

Using the second method, focus of the real lens,

2

f=

( D d ) (110 (84.526.7) )
=
=19.9 cm
4D
4(110 )

4 ANALYSIS
Experiment 2
From our results, taking into account experimental error, the focal length of the
diverging lens measured by the different methods are close. Position 1 of the 2 nd
method gave an answer that was slightly off due to experimental limitations. Our
sheet of paper was A4 and too small to clearly measure the focal length.
Furthermore, the room was not pitch black and seeing the rays of light was difficult.
Experiment 3
The 2 measured values of the focal length of the real lens were very close. Possible
sources of error could be that the room was not pitch black so making out whether
or not the image was focused was tough.

5 CONCLUSIONS
Devices such as microscopes and telescopes work with all the same physics with
what we have experimented today.
In both cases, a real image is formed on the side opposite that the one with the
object. The image is projected onto our retina and is always inverted with respect to
the original source. Depending on whether it is a microscope or a telescope the
magnification will be either positive or negative