PHYSICS LIGHT-REFLECTION AND REFRACTION

Lens Formulae
Sign Convention for Spherical Lenses

 The new Cartesian sign convention is same as that for spherical mirrors.
 The difference is that the distances are measured from the optical centre.
 According to the sign convention, the focal length of a convex lens is positive and that of a concave
lens is negative.

Lens Formula

 The distance of the object from the optical centre is called the object distance (u).
 The distance of the image from the optical centre is called the image distance (v).
 The distance of the principal focus from the optical centre is called the focal length (f).
 The object distance, image distance and focal length are related as
1 1 1
 =
v u f
 The new Cartesian sign convention is to be followed when using this formula.

Magnification by Lens

 Magnification produced by a lens is the ratio of the height of the image to the height of the object. It is
represented as m.
Height of image (h')
m
Height of object (h)
h'

h
 Magnification is also related to the object distance and the image distance as
h' v
m 
h u

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