Lectures on Physics has been derived from Benjamin Crowell's Light and Matter series of free introductory textbooks on physics. See the editorial for more information....

How strong are your glasses?

This exercise was created by Dan MacIsaac.

Equipment:

  • eyeglasses
  • outbending lenses for students who don't wear glasses, or who use inbending glasses
  • rulers and metersticks
  • scratch paper
  • marking pens

Most people who wear glasses have glasses whose lenses are outbending, which allows them to focus on objects far away. Such a lens cannot form a real image, so its focal length cannot be measured as easily as that of an inbending lens. In this exercise you will determine the focal length of your own glasses by taking them off, holding them at a distance from your face, and looking through them at a set of parallel lines on a piece of paper. The lines will be reduced (the lens's magnification is less than one), and by adjusting the distance between the lens and the paper, you can make the magnification equal 1/2 exactly, so that two spaces between lines as seen through the lens fit into one space as seen simultaneously to the side of the lens. This object distance can be used in order to find the focal length of the lens.

1. Use a marker to draw three evenly spaced parallel lines on the paper. (A spacing of a few cm works well.)

2. Does this technique really measure magnification or does it measure angular magnification? What can you do in your experiment in order to make these two quantities nearly the same, so the math is simpler?

3. Before taking any numerical data, use algebra to find the focal length of the lens in terms of do, the object distance that results in a magnification of 1/2.

4. Measure the object distance that results in a magnification of 1/2, and determine the focal length of your lens.




Last Update: 2009-06-21