What are Lenses?
Light beams flow through lenses, which are optical devices that allow light to pass through them. A lens is a transparent substance constrained by two curved surfaces that can refract light rays. A lens can have one surface plane and another spherical surface, indicating that it has at least one.
Lenses are often made of a thin piece of glass or plastic. Binoculars, telescopes, vision-correcting spectacles, torches, and microscopes are just a few examples.
Image Formation by Lenses
In optics, a ray is a geometrical representation of the light that is idealized by choosing a curve that is perpendicular to the wave fronts of actual light and points in the energy flow direction. Rays are used to represent the propagation of light through an optical system by separating the real light field into discrete rays that can be computationally carried through the system using ray-tracing techniques. This makes it possible to investigate or simulate even the most complex optical systems mathematically. Ray tracing is based on approximate solutions to Maxwell’s equations that hold true as long as light waves flow through and around objects with dimensions significantly greater than the wavelength of the light. Diffraction, for example, necessitates the study of wave optics, which is not addressed by ray or geometrical optics. Adding phase to the ray model can be used to describe wave phenomena such as interference in some instances.