Noelia Santana Research Project Honors Physics Jessica Helms Thin Lenses are used in many different ways

in everyday life. In this paper I will describe what kind of thin lenses there are, how they relate to eyeglasses, and the positioning of them in a compound microscope and telescope. Lenses use refraction, which is the bending of light as it passes from one substance to another. It creates an image by bending rays of light that pass through it. There are two types of thin lenses, converging and diverging. Converging lense can be referred to as double convex lenses. Convex lenses are those in which bend outward in the middle, to for a sort of an oval shape. These type of lenses are thicker in the middle. This causes rays of light, that are initially parallel, to meet at a single point, which is called the focal point. After light passes through this type of lense, it bends, and connects at the focal point. When the light first hit the top half of the lense it bends down a little, then bends down even more when it hits the other side of the lense. The light that hits the bottom half of the lense bends up a little, then bends up even more when it hits the other side. This causes the raise to cross, and like i mentioned previously, create a focal point. Diverging lenses could also be referred to as double concave. Concave lenses are those in which they scoop inside in the middle, like if it were caving in on both side. It creates a sort of smooth hourglass shape. Theses lenses are thinner in the middle, which causes the rays of light to appear as if they were coming from a single point. After the light passes through this lense it bends and splits. They spread out in different directions. In other words, when the light hits the top half of the lense, it bends up. When the light hits the bottom half, it goes down. They light never crosses and splits.

In everyday life these lenses are used to correct hyperopia (farsightedness), and myopia (nearsightedness). People who suffer from farsightedness are not able to see objects up close, but can see things from a far. In normal eyes the focal point of the image you see in focused sharply on the retina, which is basically the back of your eye. In farsighted cases, the eye is shorter than that of someone with a normal eye. This causes the focal point to be located behind the retina, since the distance of the eye horizontally has decreased but the focal point is the same. To correct this problem, patients are prescribed glasses with converging lenses. The lense will shift the focal point forward, helping it to be focused sharply on the retina. In nearsighted cases the eye is longer than it should be. Since the horizontal distance has decreased the focal point is in front of the retina, and cannot reach its designated spot. Glasses that have diverging lenses are prescribed to these patients. The diverging lense the push the focal point back, helping it reach the retina. Both lenses help people see clearly. Thin lenses also appear in microscopes and telescopes. A telescope is an instrument made to make distant objects appear closer, such as viewing stars or the moon. It contains an arrangement of lenses, by which rays of light are collected and focused. This results in the magnified image. It contains and objective lense, which gathers the light and bends it into focus. A microscope is used to view very small objects, which are typically magnified several hundred thousand times, such as plant and animal cells. It contains two main types of lense, ocular and objective. The ocular lense are located at the very top where you look into the microscope, and the objective are located at the bottom (looking at the stage) where is focuses of the objects being magnified. Both are very important tools that help see objects closer. Thin lense are critical objects that one needs in daily life. Such as to help one see better, help see objects in the sky, or discover new worlds that cannot be seen by the naked eye.

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