Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behaviour and properties of light, including

its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it.

Optical science is relevant to and studied in many related disciplines including

astronomy, various engineering fields, photography, and medicine (particularly
ophthalmology). Practical applications of optics are found in a variety of
technologies and everyday objects, including mirrors, lenses, telescopes,
microscopes, lasers, and fibre optics.

Reflection of Light
When a ray of light falls on any surface, a part of the light is sent back to the same medium. This
phenomenon where the incident light falling on a surface is sent back to the same medium is known as
reflection.
There are two types of reflection of light:

Regular reflection

Irregular reflection

Different properties of light like reflection, refraction, scattering, absorption are shown in the
Figure below,

Reflection of Light by a Plane Surface

The figure shows how a ray of light is reflected by a plane surface. Let MM' represent a reflecting surface.
When a ray of light is incident on MM' in the direction IO it gets reflected along the direction OR. IO is the
incident ray; O is the point of incidence and OR is the reflected ray.

Reflection of a Ray Light by a Plane Mirror

Let ON be the normal drawn perpendicular to the surface MM' at the point of incidence. The angle which
the incident ray makes with the normal at the point of incidence is called the angle of incidence and is
denoted by the letter 'i'. The angle that the reflected ray makes with the normal at the point of incidence is
called the angle of reflection 'r'.

The Laws of Reflection

The reflection at any plane surface is found to obey the laws of reflection. The laws of reflection are:

The incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal at the point of incidence lie in the same plane.

The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.

Dispersion of Light
It is the phenomenon of splitting of a beam of white light into its constituent colors on passing through
prism. The order of colors from the lower end are violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

A. LENSES
A lens is merely a carefully ground or moulded piece of
transparent material that refracts light rays in such as way as
to form an image. Lenses can be thought of as a series of tiny
refracting prisms, each of
which refracts light to
produce their own image.
When these prisms act
together, they produce a
bright image focused at a
point.
Types of Lenses
There are a variety of types of lenses. Our focus will be upon
lenses that are symmetrical across their horizontal axis known as the principal axis. Lenses can be categorised as
converging lenses and diverging lenses. A converging lens is
a lens that converges rays of light that are travelling parallel to
its principal axis. A diverging lens is a lens that diverges rays
of light that are travelling parallel to its principal axis.

A double convex lens is symmetrical across both its

horizontal and vertical axis. Each of the lens' two faces can be
thought of as originally being part of a sphere. The fact that a
double convex lens is thicker across its middle is an indicator
that it will converge rays of light that travel parallel to its
principal axis. A double convex lens is a converging lens.
A double concave lens is also symmetrical across both its
horizontal and vertical axis. The two faces of a double concave
lens can be thought of as originally being part of a sphere. The
fact that a double concave lens is thinner across its middle is
an indicator that it will diverge rays of light that travel parallel
to its principal axis. A double concave lens is a diverging lens.
These two types of lenses - a double convex and a double
concave lens will be the only types
of lenses that will be discussed in our
experiments.
Language of Lenses
As we begin to discuss the refraction of light rays and the
formation of images by these two types of lenses, we will need
to use a variety of terms. If a symmetrical lens were thought of
as being a slice of a sphere, then there would be a line passing
through the center of the sphere and attaching to the exact
center of the lens. This imaginary line is known as
the principal axis. A lens also has an imaginary vertical
axis that bisects the symmetrical lens into halves. If the light
rays converge (as in a converging lens), then they will
converge to a point on the principal axis. This point is known
as the focal point of the converging lens. If the light rays
diverge (as in a diverging lens), then the diverging rays can be
traced backwards until they intersect at a point on the
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principal axis. This intersection point is known as the focal

point of a diverging lens. The focal point is denoted by the
letter F. on the diagrams below. Note that each lens has two
focal points - one on each side of the lens. Unlike mirrors,
lenses can allow light to pass through either face, depending
on where the incident rays are coming from. Subsequently,
every lens has two possible focal points. The distance from the
lens to the focal point is known as the focal
length (abbreviated by f). Technically, a lens does not have a
center of curvature (at least not one that has any importance
to our discussion). However a lens does have an imaginary
point that we refer to as the 2f point. This is the point on the
principal axis that is twice as far from the vertical axis as the
focal point is.

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