Light

A piece of transparent material bound by curved surfaces. There are two types of lens concave lens and convex lens. Convex lens is thick at the centre and thinner at edges, it is called converging lens concave lens is thin at the center and thicker at edge, it is called diverging lens.

It is a lens that possesses at least one surface that curves inwards. When light rays are incident on a concave lens, they bend outwards or diverge. The rays diverge away from each other. Thus, a concave lens is also called a diverging lens. A concave lens is thinner at its centre than at its edges, and is used to correct short sightedness. It does not focus at a single point. The image formed by a concave lens is upright, virtual and smaller than the object. For example, the images seen through a peephole are different from normal holes, because these peep holes contain concave lenses.

A convex lens makes the object magnified, when viewed through it. A convex lens is thick in the middle and thin at its edge. When light rays pass through a convex lens, they bend inwards and converge at a common point to form an image of the source of light. Rays from the sun converge to form its image as a bright spot. A convex lens converges light rays. Therefore, it is also called a converging lens. The image formed when the object is placed close to a convex lens is virtual, erect and magnified. Virtual images cannot be caught on a screen. Images that are caught on a screen are called real images. When the object is placed at a distance from a convex lens, the image formed is real, inverted and diminished.

Objects are visible only when light reflected from the object reaches our eyes.