The Focal Length of a Thin Converging Lens

Introduction
The ability of a lens to focus light is a consequence of its shape and optical density
relative to that of the surrounding environment. For example, a thin converging lens,
typically made from some type of glass, is fabricated into the shape of two spherical
caps of relatively small curvature with the convex side of each cap facing outwardly
(See point O in Fig. 1.). The focal point of such a lens can be defined as the point where
light from a distant source is focused by the lens, and its focal length as the distance
from the lens to the focal point (An informative and illuminating discussion of lenses
can be found in the Wikipedia [1].). The purpose of this experiment is to determine the
focal length of a thin converging lens.
Because of its ability to focus light a converging lens can produce an image of an
object, as represented in Fig. 1. The object and image are denoted by the line segments
AB and A0 B 0 . The red lines are a representative sample of light rays emanating from
point B. The lens redirects and focuses the light rays at point B 0 . In this example the
image is characterized as real and inverted. It is real because a viewer to the right of
the lens would observe light rays originating from the image, as is shown for the image
point B 0 . The focal points on either side of the lens are denoted F and F 0 . Whenever
the two spherical caps have the same curvature, as in Fig. 1, the distance from the lens
to either focal point is the same. Thus, there is a single focal length denoted f which
equals the distance OF = O0 F 0 . One can show that the focal length is related to the
following quantites,
dd0
f= , (1)
d + d0
where the object distance d equals OA, and the image distance d0 equals O0 A0 . In Eq. 1
taking the limit as d approaches infinity, which corresponds in practice to locating the
object far from the lens, one obtains

dd0
f = lim = d0 , (2)
d→∞ d + d0
showing that light coming from a distant source is focused at the focal point of the lens.
Also, one can show
d0
f= , (3)
1−m

1
where the magnification m is defined as

h0
m≡ . (4)
h
Here the object height h equals the distance AB, and the image height h0 equals minus
the distance A0 B 0 . The reason h0 < 0 is that the image is inverted relative to the object.

A′
| |

A F O F′

B′

Figure 1: A thin converging lens producing a real inverted image.

Figure 2: The optical bench. From left to right is the object, which consists of a light
source and template, the converging lens, and a screen on which the image is projected.

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Procedure
Attach the light source (the object) to the optical bench at the 5 cm mark. Attach the
lens to the optical bench at the 35 cm mark. Attach the screen to the optical bench. The
configuration should resemble that of Fig. 2. Connect the light source to the ac outlet.

1. Case 1: Move the screen to the location where a well defined image is formed.
Record the object distance, the image distance, the object height, and the image
height in Table 1 (Note: the image height is a negative number because the image
is inverted.).

2. Case 2: Move the lens to the 50 cm mark. Move the screen to the location
where a well defined image is formed. Record the object distance and the image
distance in Table 1. The object and image heights are not required.
3. Case 3: Move the lens to the 65 cm mark. Adjust the screen until a well defined
image is formed. Record the object distance and image distance in in Table 1.

4. Case 4: Unplug the light source and remove it from the optical bench. Obtain an
image of a distant object. This may require rotating the optical bench to aim the
lens at the object. Move the screen to the location where a well defined image is
formed. Record the image distance in Table 1.

Method 1
Using Eq. 1 or 2, as appropriate, calculate the focal length of the lens for each of the
four cases. Record the values in Table 2. Calculate the average and standard error of
these values and report the value of the focal length in Table 2 in the form given by
Eq. 8.

Method 2
For Case 1, calculate the magnification of the lens using Eq. 4. Substitute the value of
the magnification and the image distance into Eq. 3 to obtain another estimate of the
focal length of the lens. Record its value in Table 2. According to the criterion Eq. 9
are the focal lengths obtained by the two methods consistent?

Appendix
Given a set of data xi (i = 1 . . . N ) corresponding to a quantity whose true value is
xt . If each of the xi differs from xt because each xi includes a random error i , i.e.
xi = xt + i , then an unbiased estimate of xt is x̄,
N
1 X
x̄ = xi , (5)
N i=1

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and an unbiased estimate of its standard error is σ,
σN −1
σ= √ , (6)
N
where s
PN
i=1 (xi− x̄)2
σN −1 = . (7)
N −1
In calculating σN −1 , the number of degress of freedom ν = N − 1 is used rather than
N . Note: In Microsoft Excel x̄ and σN −1 can be calculated using the library functions
AVERAGE and STDEV.
To reflect the statistical uncertainty in xt , the experimental results are typically
reported as
Qest ± δQ , (8)
where Qest = x̄ is the unbiased estimate of xt and δQ = σ is the standard deviation of
x̄. Equation 8 can be understood informally to mean that, assuming the experimental
results are consistent with theory, then the value of Qest , predicted by theory, is likely
to lie within the limits defined by Equation 8. This informal interpretation can be made
more precise. Specifically, one specifies a confidence interval, e.g. the 95% confidence
interval (See below.). Then assuming that the theory accounts for the experimental
results, there is a 95% probability that the calculated confidence interval from some
future experiment encompasses the theoretical value. If, for a given experiment the
value of xt predicted by theory lies outside of the confidence interval, the assumption
that theory accounts for the results of the experiment is rejected, i.e. the experimental
results are inconsistent with theory. The confidence interval is expressed as
[Qest − X δQ, Yest + Q δQ] , (9)
The quantity X is obtained from a Student’s t-distribution and depends on the confi-
dence interval and the degrees of freedom. A detailed and illuminating discussion of
the Student’s t-distribution can be found in the Wikipedia on-line free encyclopedia. [2]
There are various ways of obtaining or calculating the value of X. For example, the
spreadsheet Microsoft Excel includes a library function T.INV.2T for calculating X
based on a two-tailed t-test. Specifically,
X = T.INV.2T(p, ν) , (10)
where the probability p = 1 − (the confidence
100
interval)
and ν is the degrees of freedom.
Consider the following example for illustrative purposes. The number of data points is
4; the confidence interval is 95%. Therefore
95
X = T.INV.2T(1 − , 4 − 1) = 3.182 . (11)
100

References
[1] Wikipedia. Lens (optics). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_
(optics), 2008. [Online; accessed 14-March-2008].

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[2] Wikipedia. Student’s t-distribution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Student%27s_t-distribution, 2017. [Online; accessed 22-March-2017].

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Case
d (cm) d0 (cm) h (cm) h0 (cm)

4 ∞

Table 1: Data

Case Method 1 Method 2

f (cm) ±

Table 2: Calculations