Friday, December 7, 2012

Lab questions


Questions for the lens/mirror lab:

1.       1,  You’ve no doubt seen that the size of the image changes.  Comment on how/where it changes.   Knowing the theoretical focal length, can you determine a rule (or an approximate rule) – something like, the image goes from smaller to larger when do is equal to the focal length (or something like that).  Be specific.

2.      2.  How does the aperture affect the image?  That is, if you were to block the top part of the lens or mirror, how would the image change?  How about if you cover the bottom part?

3.      3.  You should calculate theoretical focal lengths for every point where you have data (do and di).  How do these experimental focal lengths compare to the theoretical focal length?  Do a percent difference calculation for each.

4.       4,  In general, have you found your results for lenses and mirrors to be similar?  Discuss.

5.       5.  In this lab, where did you see virtual images?  How did you know they were virtual?

6.      6.   How could one determine (experimentally) the focal length of a convex mirror or concave lens?

7.      7.   Mathematically, there are worthwhile cases to consider – key points – where do = f, do = 2f, do is much, much greater than f.  What is going on mathematically with each of these cases?

8.      8.  Don’t forget to give errors and a general conclusion.  In your conclusion, discuss the extent to which your initial suspicions (hypothesis) were correct or incorrect.


Play around with this applet and note what happens.  This may make things easier to visualize, even though only 2 or 3 rays are depicted as coming from the object.


There is a useful expression, the magnification equation:
Magnification = -di/do

In this equation, a negative magnification indicates an upside down image.  If the absolute value of the magnification is greater than 1, the image is larger.  You may want to calculate magnifications to see how well they match with what you find to be in the lab data.

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