Thin Lens And Lens Maker Equations Video Lessons

Concept

# Problem: As a spherical mirror becomes flatter, the radius of curvature R gets larger. Notice that as R goes to infinity, so does f, because f = R/2. Thus, as R gets larger, 1/f gets smaller. In the limit where you allow R to go infinity, 1/f becomes zero. Therefore, if you could construct a mirror with an infinitely large radius of curvature, it would obey the equation 1/so + 1/si = 0.What is the value of si obtained from this new equation? Express your answer in terms of so.

###### FREE Expert Solution

Lens equation:
$\overline{)\frac{\mathbf{1}}{{\mathbit{s}}_{\mathbit{o}}}{\mathbf{+}}\frac{\mathbf{1}}{{\mathbit{s}}_{\mathbit{i}}}{\mathbf{=}}\frac{\mathbf{1}}{\mathbit{f}}}$

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###### Problem Details

As a spherical mirror becomes flatter, the radius of curvature R gets larger. Notice that as R goes to infinity, so does f, because f = R/2. Thus, as R gets larger, 1/f gets smaller. In the limit where you allow R to go infinity, 1/f becomes zero. Therefore, if you could construct a mirror with an infinitely large radius of curvature, it would obey the equation 1/so + 1/si = 0.

What is the value of si obtained from this new equation? Express your answer in terms of so.