Physics › Section R · Electromagnetic waves and geometric optics › Topic R.6

Image formation by lenses

Cameras, spectacles, magnifying glasses and your own eyes all form images with lenses. A few ray rules and one equation predict where every image appears, how big it is, and whether it can be caught on a screen.

In this topic

  • Two kinds of lens
  • Focal points and power
  • Ray diagrams in words
  • Real and virtual images
  • The thin-lens equation and its signs
  • Worked example: a real image
  • Worked example: a magnifying glass
  • Worked example: a diverging lens
  • Where the image goes
  • Common mistakes to avoid
  • Key takeaways

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