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Physics LibreTexts

2.1: What You Should Know and be able to do After Studying This Chapter

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)

  • Principle of Fermat.
  • Understand the approximation made in Gaussian geometrical optics.
  • Know how to work with the sign convention of the Lens Maker’s Formula (not the derivation of the formula).
  • Understand how the Lens Maker’s Formula of a single lens follows from the formula for a single interface.
  • Understand how the image of two and more lenses is derived from that of a single lens by construction and by computing the intermediate images. You do not need to know the imaging equation and the formulae for the focal distances of two thin lenses.
  • Understand the matrix method (you do not need to know the matrices by hart).
  • Understand the modification of the lens model to incorporate a thick lens.
  • Understand the limitations of geometrical optics, in particular when diffraction optics is needed.

Nice software for practicing geometrical optics: https://www.geogebra.org/m/X8RuneVy


This page titled 2.1: What You Should Know and be able to do After Studying This Chapter is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Sander Konijnenberg, Aurèle J.L. Adam, & H. Paul Urbach (TU Delft Open) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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