Practice Lenses in Physics

Use these practice problems to test your method after reviewing the concept explanation and worked examples.

Quick Recap

Lenses are transparent optical devices that form images by refraction. A converging lens brings parallel rays together, while a diverging lens spreads them apart.

A lens bends light on purpose so an image can be focused or spread out.

Showing a random 20 of 50 problems.

Example 1

medium
Two thin lenses with powers +3 D and +2 D are placed in contact. Find the combined focal length.

Example 2

medium
A diverging lens (f=−10 cm) has an object at do=20 cm. Find di and m.

Example 3

easy
A converging lens has f=25 cm. An object sits at do=50 cm. Find the image distance.

Example 4

medium
A converging lens has f=5 cm and forms an image at di=20 cm. Find do.

Example 5

easy
A diverging lens always forms what kind of image for a real object?

Example 6

hard
A converging lens projects an image whose height is one-third the object's onto a screen. The lens has f=15 cm. Find do.

Example 7

hard
A converging lens forms a real image 4 times the object height on a screen. The lens has f=12 cm. Find do and di.

Example 8

medium
A converging lens (f=12 cm) has an object at do=18 cm. Find di and the magnification.

Example 9

medium
Two thin lenses in contact have powers +4 D and −1 D. Find the combined focal length.

Example 10

easy
What sign of di indicates a virtual image?

Example 11

medium
A converging lens has power P=5 D. An object is at do=0.10 m. Find the image distance in meters.

Example 12

challenge
A converging lens with f=10 cm is used to image an object so the image-to-object distance is minimum. Find do and that minimum total distance.

Example 13

easy
A converging lens forms an image at di=40 cm from an object at do=40 cm. Find f.

Example 14

medium
A converging lens (f=10 cm) has an object at do=15 cm. Find di and state real or virtual.

Example 15

medium
A converging lens forms a real image 20 cm from the lens. The object is 30 cm from the lens. Find f.

Example 16

medium
A converging lens with f=10 cm produces an image of a 4 cm object at do=30 cm. Find the image height.

Example 17

challenge
A two-lens system has lens 1 (f1=10 cm) and lens 2 (f2=20 cm) separated by 50 cm. An object sits 20 cm in front of lens 1. Find the final image distance from lens 2.

Example 18

easy
A converging lens with f=10 cm has an object at infinity. Where is the image?

Example 19

easy
What is the sign of the focal length of a diverging lens?

Example 20

easy
In the lens sign convention here, a positive image distance di means the image is on which side?