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Combination of thin lens in contact, Lenses at a distance is considered one of the most asked concept.
27 Questions around this concept.
A convex lens of focal length and a concave lens of focal length are placed in contact. Then the focal length of the combination is :
A luminous object is placed at a distance of from a convex lens of focal length . On the other side of the lens, at what distance from the lens must a convex mirror of radius of curvature be placed in order to have an upright image of the object coincident with it?
Two identical glass equiconvex lenses of focal length are kept in contact. The space between the two lenses is filled with water . The focal length of the combination is:
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Two thin convex lenses of focal length and are placed at a finite distance apart. The power of the combination is . Distance between the lenses is:
A biconvex lens of focal length is in front of a plane mirror. The distance between the lens and the mirror is . A small object is kept at a distance of from the lens. The final image is
The graph shows, how the inverse of magnification produce by a convex thin lens, with variation in object distance . What was the focal length of the lens used?
A thin lens made of glass of refractive index has a focal length equal to in air. It is now immersed in water . Its new focal length is:
A convex lens, of focal length 30 cm, a concave lens of focal length 120 cm, and a plane mirror are arranged as shown. For an object kept at a distance of 60 cm from the convex lens, the final image, formed by the combination, is a real image, at a distance of :
To find the focal length of a convex mirror, a student records the following data :
Object Pin |
Convex Lens | Convex Mirror |
Image Pin |
22.2 cm | 32.2 cm | 45.8 cm | 71.2 cm |
The focal length of the convex lens is 1 and that of mirror is 2. Then taking index correction to be negligibly small, 1 and 2 are close to :
A convex lens of focal length forms a real image three times larger than the object on a screen. Object and screen are moved until the image becomes twice the size of the object. If the shift of the object is . The shift of screen is:
Combination of thin lens in contact -
Till now we have discussed single lens, but what happen when two or more than two lenses combined together. For this let us consider two lenses A and B of focal length f1 and f2 placed in contact with each other. Let the object be placed at a point O beyond the focus of the first lens A (See the figure).
The first lens produces an image at I1. Now the image at I1 is real but it serves as a virtual object for the second lens B. The lens B produce the final image at I. Since the lenses are thin, we assume the optical centres of the lenses to be coincident. Let this central point be denoted by P.
So for the lens A -
Similarly for lens B -
Adding both the equation, we get -
Now, let us assume two lens-system equivalent to a single lens of focal length f, we have -
So from (1) and (2), we can conclude that the focal length after combination of two thin lenses, we get -
Similarly the by combining any number of thin lenses in contact. we can get -
In terms of Power, we can write this equation as -
Here P is the net power of the lens combination. Note that the sum is an algebraic sum of individual powers, so the power may be positive or negative because it may be combination of both concave or convex lenses. So some of the terms on the right side may be positive (for convex lenses) and some negative (for concave lenses).
In terms of magnification we can write the net magnification as -
As we know that in combination of lens the image of the first lens is the object for the second lens. So the magnification due to the combination of lens is multiplication of individual magnification.
The combination of lenses is needed in lenses for cameras, microscopes, telescopes and other optical instruments.
Lenses at a distance -
When two thin lenses are separated by a distance,it is equivalent to a thick lens, but not equivalent to single thin lens. Now let us take a special case in which the object is placed at infinity, so the combination may be replaced by a single thin lens. We shall now derive the position and focal length of the equivalent lens in this special case. To start with, let us derive an expression for the angle of deviation of a ray when it passes through a lens.
Let 0 be a point object on the principal axis of a lens. Let OA be a incident ray on the lens at a point A which is at a height h above the optical centre. It is deviated through an angle and comes out along AI. It strikes the principal axis at I where the image is formed.
If the hieght h is very small as compare to the PI and PO, then the will be very small,
So we can write,
Now by sign convention we can write that the PO = -u and PI = v, So the above equation can be written as -
Now let us consider two thin lenses are placed coaxially at a separation d. The incident ray AB and the emergent ray CD intersect at point named as E. The perpendicular from E to the principal axis falls at P. The equivalent lens should be placed at this position P. A ray ABE going parallel to the principal axis will go through the equivalent lens and emerge along ECD. The angle of deviation is
The focal length of the equivalent lens is F = PD,
Position of the Equivalent Lens
Thus, the equivalent lens is to be placed at a distance behind the second lens.
Note - Both the above relation are true only for the special case of parallel incident beam. If the object is at a finite distance, one should not use the above equations.
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