Question

Deduce an expression for the focal length of a thick lens and prove that with the increase in thickness of the lens its focal length decreases.

Answer 1

Explanation:

The focal length of the lens tells you how far away from the lens a focused image is created, if light rays approaching the lens are parallel. A lens with more “bending power” has a shorter focal length, because it alters the path of the light rays more effectively than a weaker lens. Most of the time, you can treat a lens as being thin and ignore any effects from the thickness, because the thickness of the lens is much less than the focal length. But for thicker lenses, how thick they are does make a difference, and in general, results in a shorter focal length.