Real and Virtual lmages

a) What to do
1. Get the A lens from your Optics Kit.
2. Place the magnifying lens over the drawing of an arrow.
3. Hold the magnifying lens at about arm's length away from your eye, and slowly lift the magnifying lens off the picture.
4. Keep lifting the magnifying lens until the image you are watching turns upside down.
5. Repeat for the B image

b) What happened

As you first began to move the magnifying lens further away from the page, the image grew larger. At one point the image became fuzzy and then came back into focus upside down. This is because of the way the magnifying lens bends the light traveling to your eye from the page. When the magnifying lens is close to the page, you see what is known as a virtual image. This is an upright image that is larger than the image on the page. As you move the magnifying lens closer to your eye and away from the page, you see what is called a real image, which is upside down. Look at the diagrams below to see how the light is bent by the lens to form the two types of images you saw.




c) Summary: If the object is inside the focal plane (F) the image is virtual and erect; if the object is outside the focal plane (F) the image is real and inverted.

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