ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF NATURAL AND COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCES

DEPARTEMENT OF PHYSICS

LABORATORY REPORT

 FOCAL LENGTH OF LENSES

Date of experiment: January 22, 2024

Date of submission: January 29, 2024

Section 2

Experiment #1

Group No: Group 5

Group Members

 Natnael Legesse UGR/4129/16

 Liwam Gebresilassie UGR/8402/16
 Setye Leake UGR/1425/16
 Yordanos Hailu UGR/2725/16
 Meresiet Zekiyos UGR/8817/16

Name of instructor: Ass. Professor Tilahun Tesfaye

Name of Lab Assistant:

 Determining the focal length of convex and concave lenses
Abstract
Three experiments were performed to find the focal length of two convex and one concave lenses. The
method we used to determine the focal length of each lens was by measuring the distance from the
object and image and the distance between the two positions of the lens leading to a sharp image.
And for the concave lens we measured the distance between the concave lens and the image before
placing concave lens (U) and by measuring the distance between the concave lens and the sharp image
created by the concave lens on the image.

Purpose
The target and the incentive to do this experiment is to calculate and find the focal length of two convex
and concave lens.

Materials
1. Optical bench
2. Holders for lenses
3. A screen to form images
4. Meter stick
5. Concave lens (1)
6. Convex lenses different focal lengths (2)
7. Lamp with object on face (illuminated object) (1)

Introduction (Theory)
How to Find Focal Length of Concave Lens?
Following are the ways to obtain the focal length of the concave lens:

 A concave Lens is defined as the spherical lens whose reflecting surface is curved inwards and
follows laws of reflection of light.
 The light rays coming from a distant object can be considered to be parallel to each other.
 If the image formed is real, inverted and very small in size, then the parallel rays of light meet
the point in the front of the lens.
 The image formed by the convex lens is real and can be obtained on the screen.
 f is used to denote the difference between the principal axis P and the focus F of the concave
lens .

How to Find the Focal Length of Convex Lens?

Following are the ways to obtain the focal length of convex lens:
  The convex lens is thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges and is also known as the
converging lens.
 The refracted rays from the parallel beam of light converge on the other side of the convex lens.
 If the image is obtained at the focus of the lens, the image would be real, inverted and very
small.
 f is the focal length which is the difference between the optical centre of the lens and the
principal focus.
 The image can be obtained on the screen as the image formed by the lens is real.

A beam of parallel ray to the principal axis of a convex lens converge to a point, called focal point, after
passing through a convex lens. The distance from the focal point to the center of the lens is known as
the focal length. We can use S and S’ to determine the focal length of any convex lenses
By using this formula:-

1 1 1
+ =
S S' f

Suppose the lens produces a sharp image of the candle at the two positions. Let the distance between
the object and the image be D and the distance between the two positions of the lens leading to a sharp
image be d. We will have
S1=S’2 and S2=S’1
From figure and the above relations we have

S1+S1’=D and S1’-S1= d

D−d D+ d
Hence, S 1 = and S’1 =
2 2

1 1 1
Using the lens equation + = by substitution we will get
S S' f

D2 – d 2
f= cm
4D

And for the concave lens we can get focal length of it by using the following formula

uv
f= cm
u+v

Prediction
We can get the focal length of all three lenses using our formula.

Procedure
1. Put the screen at a distance D from the object as shown in figure
2. Put the lens between the object and the screen at a point where a clear image appears on the screen
3. Keeping the object and the screen fixed, a second position is found in which the lens gives a well
focused image on the screen.
4. Repeat the above steps for five times
 Methods

1) The focal length of the lens is given by: f = (D2-d2)/ 4D, Where D= distance between the object
and the screen and d = distance between the two positions of the lens. Putting the object on its
position like in the figure above and the image also. We put the convex lens and vary the
distance from the object until we find the two sharp images.
2) The focal length of concave lense is measured by the formula f= uv/(u+v ), Where

Data Collection
Data 1 for convex lens #1 in cm

c
( D 2 – d 2)
S. no D d D -d
2 2
4D 4D

m
1 80 56.31 3235.378 320 10.11056
2 80 56.20 2983.04 320 9.322
3 84 60.8 3207.36 336 9.545714
4 86 63.3 4009.45 344 11.65538
5 79 53.5 3378.75 316 10.69225

Data 1 for convex lens #2 in cm

 c
( D 2 – d 2)
S. no D d D -d
2 2
4D 4D

m
1 90 32.86 6718.237 360 18.66177
2 97 42.05 8083.584 388 20.83398
3 89 31.52 7549.064 356 21.20524
4 80 11.8 5955.73 320 18.61166
5 93 37.65 7231.478 372 19.43946

Discovery problems :-

Average value of f for lens 1 10.26518

Average value of f for lens 1 19.75042

Convex lens 1
 Convex 1
4500

4000

3500

3000

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

0
320 320 336 344 316

Convex lens 2

Convex 2
9000

8000

7000

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
360 388 356 320 372

Slopes of Convex lens 1 Slopes of Convex lens 1

0 48.76239
14 16.70375
100.25 44.25928
22.5357 24.53362
Average slope f* Average slope f2*
34.19643 33.56476
Average value of f for lens 1 Average value of f for lens 2
10.26518 19.75042

Concave Lens 1(cm)

S.no U V UV U+V UV/U+V
1 79.7 4.05 83.75 3.854149 3.854149
2 84.4 3.3 87.7 3.175827 3.175827
3 93.05 3.7 96.75 3.558501 3.558501
4 104.1 2.9 107 2.821402 2.821402
5 116.2 2.65 118.85 2.590913 2.590913

Average Focal length 3.200158

4.5

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
83.75 87.7 96.75 107 118.85

Slopes of the graph

-5.82319
23.64937
 -13.9059
-51.4124
Average Slope
-11.873

Discussion
First we turn on the light to be projected through the object and we set the object and image in certain
distance and measured their distance D and by varying their distance we totally have 5 measurements,
in mean time we was measuring the sharp images of the convex lenses distance d, we did this for the
second convex lens and we got different results, we used the wood that we set our lens, object and
image for measurement because we found length unit centimeter and inch. We choose centimeter
because it is universal unit. And then we collected and organized our data in to a paper. And we made
an analysis of the collected data and we got precise data for the focal length.

And for the second concave lens we put our convex lens on its place that can give us a sharp image and
we measured U and V value by varying the distance between the object and the image and also if we
vary the distance between the object and the image we need to fix our convex lens’s position. So we
performed well. By varying the distance of the concave lens we measured another variable V. and we
collected and organized our data into a piece of paper and we made analysis on it .

Conclusion
As we learned in our high-school and our references showed us, we assured that convex lens is
thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges and is also known as the converging lens and also
concave lens is thicker in the edges and thinner at the middle and is also known as the diverging
lens, and using our formula and our data that we collected we performed an experiment that can
lead us to find the value of each three lenses focal length.

References

 Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham & CDAC Mumbai. Funded by MeitY (Ministry of Electronics &
Information Technology)
 Khan Academy | Free Online Courses, Lessons & Practice
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/optics-essentials/
 Grade 10 Old Csssurriculum Unit 6 Electromagnetic Waves and Geometrical Optics