Introduction

Focal length of a thin lens will determine where the resulting image will show
up. In the case of positive lenses the image is reversed (real) and on the side
opposite the object. For negative lenses the image produced is upright
(virtual) and on the same side as the object. For both these cases object
distance(distance from lens to object being viewed) and image
distance(distance from lens to image) can be used to find the focal length of
a lens. This relation can be seen in the thin lens equation (1/do + 1/di) =
1/f , where do=object distance, di=image distance, and f=focal length. In this
lab the thin lens equation will be used to find focal length values for 2 lenses.

Methods
The main components in this lab are one ray box, 2 lenses; one convex and
one concave, an optical track, a target screen, and a meter stick for
measurement. The ray box was mounted on one end of the optical track,
while the target screen was attached to the other end. In between, either 1
or 2 lenses were placed to redirect the light and produce a real image on the
target screen. For each exercise, the positions of both the lenses and the
target screen were adjusted until a clear image was formed on the target
screen.
Five exercises were conducted, each with a different goal.
1) Basic image formation: Light was shined through a convex lens with
a focal length of 100mm to form a clear image, then the top half of the
lens was covered and the resulting image was observed.
2) Locating images by parallax: By using parallax technique (covered
in discussion), virtual image distance was determined.
3) Focal length of a positive lens: Light was shined through a convex
lens with a focal length of 100mm. Lens and target screen positions
were then adjusted to from pairs of object and image distances that
gave clear real images on the target screen.
4) Focal length of a negative lens: Light was shined through a
combination of convex (f=100mm) and concave (f=200mm) lenses.
Lens and target screen positions were then adjusted to form pairs of
object and image distances that gave clear images on the target
screen.
5) Ray diagram and magnification: A ray diagram for one of the pairs
in exercise 4 was drawn. In addition, the magnification of the pair was

determined by measuring the image size, evaluating the ray diagram,

and calculating with the thin lens equation.

Results and Discussion

Exercise 1: Basic image formation
Prediction: When the top half of the lens is covered the image will no longer
be visible on the target screen.
Results: When the top half of the lens was covered the image remained on
the target screen. The image became slightly darker, but still remained clear.

Exercise 2: Locating image by parallax

Parallax technique: This technique is used for finding relative distances
between two objects (in this case its between an object and a virtual image).
Start by looking through one lens and observe the image formed by the
object. While you observe the image, a reference object will be placed
behind the lens. Once both are in place you can move your head back and
forth slightly and observe the relative movement of both the image and the
reference object. The position of the reference object will be adjusted until
both the image and the reference object move in synch.
Using the parallax technique the image distance was determined to be
108mm. Using the thin lens equation (1/do)+(1/di)=(1/f), where d0=100mm
and f=100mm, a value of 111.1mm was calculated. Overall this value is
close (with 5% error) of the experimental value.

Exercise 3: Focal length of a positive lens

Table 1 shows calculated focal length (f) of the lens using measured object
distance (do) and image distance (di). In addition table 1 shows the average
and standard deviation for both values. The calculated mean value for focal
length (101.94mm) is close to the actual focal length of 100mm with a
percent error of 1.9%.
Table 1. Calculated focal length for each
pair of object distance and image distance
average and standard deviation also shown.
Object
Image
distance(mm)
distance(mm)
200
193
300
146
400
131
500
120
600
118
Average
Standard
deviation

Calculated focal
length(mm)
117.4
98.2
98.7
96.8
98.6
101.94
8.67

Exercise 4: Focal length of a negative lens

Table 2 shows calculated focal length (f) of the negative lens using measured
object distance (from negative lens) and image distance(from positive lens).
The calculated mean value for focal length(206.1mm) is close to the actual
focal length of 200mm with a percent error of 3%.
Table 2. Calculated focal length for each
pair of object and image distance(+ and -)
average and standard deviation also shown.
Object
Image
distance(mm)
distance(mm)(+)
200
211
300
195
400
187

Image distance(mm)
(-)
100
100
96

Calculated
length(mm
197.2
197.8
209

500
600

183
178

98
90

Average
Standard
deviation
Exercise 5: Ray diagram and magnification
For the ray diagram shown (last page), the first row in table 2 was used as
the configuration (highlighted row). The ray diagram very closely matches for
both location of final image and magnification. For magnification, the
measured value of the object was 4cm, while the image was 2cm, for an
overall magnification of 0.5. Using the magnification equation m=di/do and
the experimental values, the calculated magnification was 0.48, which is very
close to the measured value.

Conclusion
In this lab, focal length was calculated for 2 types of lenses. In addition both
magnification and ray diagrams were explored. The calculated values for all
lab measurements were fairly accurate (all within 5%) error. Some things
that could have helped the lab run smoother are a better explanation of
parallax method.

205.5
221
206.1
9.73