CENTRE OF FOUNDATION STUDIES

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA (UiTM)

PHY 098 (2018/2019)

EXPERIMENT: CONVEX LENS

MADAM NOR FARIDAH HANIM

LAB INSTRUCTOR
BTE MAT JUNIT
GROUP PI080 S25
DATE OF EXPERIMENT 18TH JANUARY 2019

NAME STUDENT ID
1 MUHAMMAD ZUHAIR JUMAT 2018277748
2 SAIYIDAH SHAFIYYAH BINTI SAIFULHAZMI 2018293678
3 NURUL ‘AIN BINTI MOHD SALIM 2018256232
4 SHIZREEN BATRISYA BT SAMSUL KAMAL 2018697152

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................4
Theory...................................................................................................................5
Methodology.........................................................................................................6
Result & Analysis.................................................................................................7
Discussion.............................................................................................................9
Conclusion............................................................................................................9
References...........................................................................................................10

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 ABSTRACT

The aim of this experiment was to determine the focal length, f of a convex lens and
to determine the magnification, M of a convex lens. In the experiment, the object distance, p
were determined in five different values, thus the image distance, q were obtained for every
value of p. The height of object, h and the height of image, h’ were also been observed in

1 1
order to get the magnification, M of the lens. Last but not least, the graph of versus has
q p
been plotted to get the focal length, f of the lens. Our known value for the focal length, f of
the convex lens was 0.10 m and our experimental value of the focal length, f for the convex
lens was 0.10087 m. Thus, our percentage error for focal point of the lens is 0.87%.

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 INTRODUCTION

A lens is a transparent piece of glass or plastic with at least one curved surface that is used to
refract light. There are two different shapes of lenses. They are called convex and concave
lenses. Converging lenses take parallel rays of light and bring them together at a focus point
while the diverging lenses cause parallel rays to spread out. A convex lens is thicker in the
middle and thinner at the edges. A convex lens will focus light and produce an image. When
parallel rays of light pass through a convex lens the refracted rays converge at one point
called principal focus. The distance between the principal focus and the centre of the lens is
called focal length. The image formed depends on the location of the object. A ray of light
can be redirected as it passes from one medium to another. A ray tracing can be used to
determine the type of image formed by a convex lens. These images are referred to real if it is
possible to see them focused on a screen or virtual if it is not possible to see them focused on
a screen. These lenses are used for variety of purposes in our daily life. For examples, the
lens in the human eyes helps us to see, the magnifying glass that produces magnified image
of the object on the same side as the object itself, camera which focuses light and produces a
clear image, microscopes and telescopes. The objectives of this experiment are to determine
the focal length of a convex lens and to determine the magnification of a convex lens.

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 THEORY

A group of rays parallel to the axis passes through the focal point, F after being converged by
the lens. The distance from the focal point to the lens is called focal length, f. The focal
length is the image distance that corresponds to an infinite object distance. The lens is very
thin; hence, it makes no difference whether take the focal length to be the distance from the
focal point to the surface of the lens or the distance from the focal point to the centre of the
lens because the difference between these two lengths are negligible. The object distance, p is
always a positive number. A real image is formed on the other side of the lens and will have a
positive number for q. A virtual image is formed in the same side of the lens as the object and
will have negative number of the distance image, q. Convex lens has a positive focal length, f
(f >0) in either side of the lens while concave lens has a negative focal length, f (f<0). The
distance to the image, q from the centre of the lens is related to the distance to the object, p
from the centre of the lens by the thin lens equation,

1 1 1
= +
f p q

The distance to the object, p is inversely proportionally to the distance to the image, q. As the
distance object, p increases, the distance image, q will decrease.

The magnification, M of the image is defined as,

h'
M=
h

Where M is the magnification of lens, h’ is the size of the image and h is the size of the
object. The magnification, M is positive when the image formed is virtual and erect while the
magnification, M is negative when the image formed is real and inverted.

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 METHODOLOGY

The experiment can be divided into two parts, which are part A, identifying focal
length of a convex lens from an infinity object and part B, identifying focal length of a

1 1
convex lens from plotting graph vs . For the first part, an object from a great distance was
q p
aimed. A convex lens was hold while a blank A4 paper was brought from far close to the lens
until a sharp image was observed on the A4 paper. The length between the image and the lens
was recorded and the properties of the image formed was recorded. In part B, the apparatus
was set up as in Figure 1. The height of the illuminated object, h was measured and recorded.
The illuminated object was placed at the end of the bench while the screen was placed at the
other end of the bench. Without moving the illuminated object, the lens and the screen were
move towards or away from the object until a clear and sharp image was formed. The object
distance, p, the image distance,q and the height of the image formed, h ' were recorded. The
lens and the screen were then moved again for 5 more different values of object distance, p,
the image distance,q and the height of the image formed, h '. Then, the magnification of the

h'
image was calculated and recorded using the formula M = .
h

Light
source Object Convex lens Screen

Figure 1: Optical bench

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 RESULT & ANALYSIS

PART A: Identifying focal length of a convex lens from an infinity object

Image distance (focal length): 0.10 m
Properties of the image: The image is real, inverted and smaller than the object

1 1
PART B: Identifying focal length by plotting graph of vs
q p
Object height, h ¿ 0.02 m
Object Image Image Magnification 1 1
(m) (m)
distance, p distance, q height, h’ , p q
(m) (m) (m) h'
M¿
h
0.15 0.290 0.038 1.90 6.667 3.448
0.20 0.207 0.025 1.25 5.000 4.831
0.25 0.168 0.018 0.90 4.000 5.952
0.30 0.152 0.013 0.65 3.333 6.579
0.35 0.140 0.010 0.50 2.857 7.143
Table 1: Result of Experiment part B

1/𝑝 vs 1/𝑞
8
7
6
5
1/q (m)

4
3
2
1
0
2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7

1/p (m)

Figure 2: Graph 1/q vs 1/p

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ANALYSIS
7.143−3.448
Slope ¿
2.857−6.667
¿ −0.9698

y−¿intercept (c):
y=mx+c
3.448 ¿ ( −0.9698 ¿(6.667) +¿c
C ¿ 9.914
1
¿ 9.914
f
∴f ¿ 0.10087 m

Percentage error:
0.10087−0.1
¿| ∨× 100 %
0.1
¿ 0.87%

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 DISCUSSION

Convex lens experiment was conducted to determine the magnification of a convex lens and
to its focal length. A convex lens was positioned between the screen and an object. The
position then were altered simultaneously with the screen until a sharp image was formed.
Image and object height were measured and recorded along with their distance from the
optical centre of the convex lens. Based on the result, the focal length can be obtained by

1 1 1 h'
using thin lens equation ( = + ¿ and magnification using M = . The
f p q h
focal length of the convex lens when object at infinity is 0.10m producing smaller, real, and
inverted image.

A graph of 1/q versus 1/p was plotted. Slope of this line is -0.9698 that indicates a
constant that distinguish the uniform decrease of the liner line. The straight line decrease
linearly to formed a negative gradient. The y-intercept of this graph represent the value of 1/f
which is 9.914 and the focal length, f value is 0.10087m.

Based on the result, the percentage error for this experiment is 0.87%. The source of
error in this experiment are due to random error and parallax error. This experiment requires
to obtain the sharpest image. The random error are due to the intensity of the surrounding
light, which can affect the ability to identify the sharpness of the image form. Thus, the light
in the room was switched off and the experiment was conducted in darker area in the room.
The random error such as the ability of the observer to detect the sharpest image may slightly
cause increase in percentage error. Effort was made by increasing the number of observer to 3
observers to pay more attention to detect the sharpest image. The parallax error may occur
during measurement. To minimize this, the eye of the observer is parallel to the measuring
scale.

CONCLUSION

1 1
The focal length, f of the convex lens obtained by plotting the graph vs is
q p
0.10087m.

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10
 REFERENCES

Serway, R. & Vuille, C. (2018). College Physics Global Edition. 11th Edition. U.K. Cengage
Learning.
Lenses, Retrieved on 15th January 2019, from http://physics.bu.edu/py106/notes/Lenses.html
UK Essays, Determination of the Focal Length of a Convex Lens. Retrieved on 15th January 2019,
from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/physics/determination-focal-length-convex-lens-
5760.php
Images, real and virtual. Retrieved on 15th January 2019 from
https://web.pa.msu.edu/courses/2000fall/PHY232/lectures/lenses/images.html

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PRE-LAB QUESTION
1. Write down the thin-lens equation.
1 1 1
+ =
p q f

2. Sketch the ray diagram when an object is at infinity. Describe the characteristics of
the image formed.

F F

¿Image formed is real, inverted and diminish.

3. How to position a convex lens, a light source and a screen in the experimental set up?

Light Object Convex lens Screen

source

4. In this experiment, explain how to obtain a clear and sharp image.

¿To obtain a clear and sharp image, the object distance and the image distance have
to be inversed to each other. If the object distance is increased, the image distance will
decrease, thus forming a clear and sharp image.

5. State the characteristics of positive and negative magnification.

¿A positive magnification form up-right image
A negative magnification form inverted image.

1 1 1
6. Given the equation + = has the form of a linear equation y=mx+c. By plotting a
p q f
1 1
graph of versus , what does the value of y-intercept indicate?
q p
1
¿y-intercept indicates
f

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POST-LAB QUESTIONS
1. What is meant by virtual and real image?
¿Virtual image is image that formed at where light appears to have converged while
real image is image that formed at where light actually converges.

2. List two everyday applications of lens.

a. Magnifying glass
b. Spectacles

3. Explain the difference between farsightedness and nearsightedness.

¿A person with farsightedness can see faraway objects but not nearby objects
meanwhile a person with nearsightedness can see nearby objects but not faraway
objects.

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