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L6-03. Optical Board - Hyperbolic Lens

Purpose

To show focusing of a hyperbolic lends

Equipment

Optical board with circular and hyperbolic lenses, concave and convex lenses to produce parallel rays.

Description

The shapes of the surfaces of a lens which exactly focuses a point object to a point image are hyperbolas.Parallel rays incident on an 18 inch long spherical lens converge at the focal point, but have lots of spherical aberration, as seen in the upper photograph. A hyperbolic lens is virtually free from spherical aberration, as seen in the lower figure. Chromatic aberration is still present, as can be seen by blocking off part of one of the extreme rays. Number of slits and their spacing can be changed by choice of slit baffle and distance of baffle from source.