Science Common Sense
212 - How do we use lenses to focus light?
Imagine you're using a magnifying glass to burn a leaf. You hold the glass at a certain angle and move it back and forth until the sun's rays concentrate into a small, hot spot on the leaf. That's basically how lenses work.
Lenses are curved pieces of glass or plastic that help focus light. There are two types of lenses:
- Converging lenses: These lenses curve inward, like a contact lens. They take light rays from far away and concentrate them into a small area, making things appear bigger.
- Diverging lenses: These lenses curve outward, like a bowl. They take light rays and spread them out, making things appear smaller.
When light passes through a lens, it bends and changes direction. By curving the lens, we can control how much the light bends and where it focuses. This is how we can use lenses to magnify things, like in microscopes or telescopes, or to converge light onto a tiny spot, like in a laser or a solar oven.