L6-12 MAGNIFYING LENS IN WATER

ID Code: L6-12
Purpose: Shows that focal properties of a lens depend on the medium in which the lens is located
Description: A small fuse box is mounted on a holder at a distance less than the focal length behind a convex lens, so the lens acts as a magnifying glass. Note, in the photo at the left, the magnification of the fuse box when the system is in air. Then dip the entire lens-object system into water. Because there is much less bending of the light at the water-glass interfaces than at the air-glass interfaces, the magnification is much less
Availability: Available

See the Physics Question of the Week for 4/7/2014 for an example of how this demonstration can be used in class interaction and discussion: lecdem.physics.umd.edu/question-of-the-week-archive.html