Introduction:

Light, electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the human eye. Electromagnetic
radiation occurs over an extremely wide range of wavelengths, from gamma rays with
wavelengths less than about 1 × 10−11 metre to radio waves measured in metres. Within that
broad spectrum the wavelengths visible to humans occupy a very narrow band, from about 700
nanometres (nm; billionths of a metre) for red light down to about 400 nm for violet light. The
spectral regions adjacent to the visible band are often referred to as light also, infrared at the one
end and ultraviolet at the other. The speed of light in a vacuum is a fundamental physical
constant, the currently accepted value of which is exactly 299,792,458 meters per second, or
about 186,282 miles per second (c=3 * 10^8 m/s).

When a beam of light encounters another transparent medium, a part of light gets reflected back
into first medium while the rest enters the other. A ray of light represents a beam. The direction
of propagation of an oblique incident (0° < i < 90°) ray of light that enters the other medium,
changes at the interface of the two media. This phenomenon is called refraction of light
Refraction in a water surface:
Refraction occurs when light goes through a water surface since water has a refractive index of
1.33 and air has a refractive index of about 1. Looking at a straight object, such as a pencil in the
figure here, which is placed at a slant, partially in the water, the object appears to bend at the
water's surface. This is due to the bending of light rays as they move from the water to the air.
Once the rays reach the eye, the eye traces them back as straight lines (lines of sight). The lines
of sight (shown as dashed lines) intersect at a higher position than where the actual rays
originated. This causes the pencil to appear higher and the water to appear shallower than it
really is.

The depth that the water appears to be when viewed from above is known as the apparent depth.
This is an important consideration for spearfishing from the surface because it will make the
target fish appear to be in a different place, and the fisher must aim lower to catch the fish.
Conversely, an object above the water has a higher apparent height when viewed from below the
water. The opposite correction must be made by an archer fish.

For small angles of incidence (measured from the normal, when sin θ is approximately the same
as tan θ), the ratio of apparent to real depth is the ratio of the refractive indexes of air to that of
water. But, as the angle of incidence approaches 90o, the apparent depth approaches zero, albeit
reflection increases, which limits observation at high angles of incidence. Conversely, the
apparent height approaches infinity as the angle of incidence (from below) increases, but even
earlier, as the angle of total internal reflection is approached, albeit the image also fades from
view as this limit is approached.
Lens:
A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means
of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound
lens consists of several simple lenses (elements), usually arranged along a common axis. Lenses
are made from materials such as glass or plastic, and are ground and polished or molded to a
desired shape. A lens can focus light to form an image, unlike a prism, which refracts light
without focusing. Devices that similarly focus or disperse waves and radiation other than visible
light are also called lenses, such as microwave lenses, electron lenses, acoustic lenses,
or explosive lenses.

Lenses are used in various imaging devices like telescopes, binoculars and cameras. They are
also used as visual aids in glasses to correct defects of vision such as myopia and hypermetropia.

History of lens:
The word lens comes from lēns, the Latin name of the lentil (a seed of a lentil plant), because a
double-convex lens is lentil-shaped. The lentil also gives its name to a geometric figure.

Some scholars argue that the archeological evidence indicates that there was widespread use of
lenses in antiquity, spanning several millennia. The so-called Nimrud lens is a rock crystal
artifact dated to the 7th century BC which may or may not have been used as a magnifying glass,
or a burning glass. Others have suggested that certain Egyptian hieroglyphs depict "simple glass
meniscal lenses".

The oldest certain reference to the use of lenses is from Aristophanes' play The Clouds (424 BC)
mentioning a burning-glass. Pliny the Elder (1st century) confirms that burning-glasses were
known in the Roman period. Pliny also has the earliest known reference to the use of a corrective
lens when he mentions that Nero was said to watch the gladiatorial games using
an emerald (presumably concave to correct for nearsightedness, though the reference is
vague). Both Pliny and Seneca the Younger (3 BC–65 AD) described the magnifying effect of a
glass globe filled with water.
Optical Microscope:
The optical microscope, also referred to as a light microscope, is a type of microscope that
commonly uses visible light and a system of lenses to generate magnified images of small
objects. Optical microscopes are the oldest design of microscope and were possibly invented in
their present compound form in the 17th century. Basic optical microscopes can be very simple,
although many complex designs aim to improve resolution and sample contrast. The vast
majority of modern research microscopes are compound microscopes while some cheaper
commercial digital microscopes are simple single lens microscopes. Compound microscopes can be
further divided into a variety of other types of microscopes which differ in their optical configurations,
cost, and intended purposes.

Types of optical microscope

There are two basic types of optical microscopes: simple microscopes and compound
microscopes. A simple microscope uses the optical power of single lens or group of lenses for
magnification. A compound microscope uses a system of lenses (one set enlarging the image
produced by another) to achieve much higher magnification of an object.

1) Simple microscope:
A simple microscope uses a lens or set of lenses to enlarge an object through angular
magnification alone, giving the viewer an erect enlarged virtual image. The use of a single
convex lens or groups of lenses are found in simple magnification devices such as
the magnifying glass, loupes, and eyepieces for telescopes and microscopes.
2) Compound microscope:
A compound microscope uses a lens close to the object being viewed to collect light (called
the objective lens) which focuses a real image of the object inside the microscope (image 1).
That image is then magnified by a second lens or group of lenses (called the eyepiece) that gives
the viewer an enlarged inverted virtual image of the object. The use of a compound
objective/eyepiece combination allows for much higher magnification. Common compound
microscopes often feature exchangeable objective lenses, allowing the user to quickly adjust the
magnification. A compound microscope also enables more advanced illumination setups, such
as phase contrast.

Other microscope variants:

There are many variants of the compound optical microscope design for specialized purposes.
Some of these are physical design differences allowing specialization for certain purposes:

 Stereo microscope, a low-powered microscope which provides a stereoscopic view of

the sample, commonly used for dissection.
 Comparison microscope, which has two separate light paths allowing direct
comparison of two samples via one image in each eye.
 Inverted microscope, for studying samples from below; useful for cell cultures in
liquid, or for metallography.
 Fiber optic connector inspection microscope, designed for connector end-face
inspection
 Traveling microscope, for studying samples of high optical resolution

Uses of optical microscope:

 Optical microscopy is used extensively in microelectronics, nanophysics, biotechnology,
pharmaceutic research, mineralogy and microbiology.

 Optical microscopy is used for medical diagnosis, the field being

termed histopathology when dealing with tissues, or in smear tests on free cells or tissue
fragments.

 In industrial use, binocular microscopes are common. Aside from applications needing
true depth perception, the use of dual eyepieces reduces eye strain associated with long
 workdays at a microscopy station. In certain applications, long-working-distance or long-
focus microscopes are beneficial. An item may need to be examined behind a window, or
industrial subjects may be a hazard to the objective. Such optics resemble telescopes with
close-focus capabilities.

 Measuring microscopes are used for precision measurement. There are two basic types.
One has a reticle graduated to allow measuring distances in the focal plane. The other
(and older) type has simple crosshairs and a micrometer mechanism for moving the
subject relative to the microscope. Very small, portable microscopes have found some
usage in places where a laboratory microscope would be a burden.
Telescope:
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption,
or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical
instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe distant objects, the
word telescope now refers to a wide range of instruments capable of detecting different regions
of the electromagnetic spectrum, and in some cases other types of detectors.

The first known practical telescopes were refracting telescopes with glass lenses and were
invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century. They were used for both
terrestrial applications and astronomy.

The reflecting telescope, which uses mirrors to collect and focus light, was invented within a few
decades of the first refracting telescope.

Refracting telescope:
A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as
its objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope
design was originally used in spyglasses and astronomical telescopes but is also used for long-
focus camera lenses. Although large refracting telescopes were very popular in the second half of
the 19th century, for most research purposes, the refracting telescope has been superseded by
the reflecting telescope, which allows larger apertures. A refractor's magnification is calculated
by dividing the focal length of the objective lens by that of the eyepiece.[1]

Refracting telescopes typically have a lens at the front, then a long tube, then an eyepiece or
instrumentation at the rear, where the telescope view comes to focus. Originally, telescopes had
an objective of one element, but a century later, two and even three element lenses were made.
Refracting telescope is a technology that has often been applied to other optical devices, such
as binoculars and zoom lenses/telephoto lens/long-focus lens.

Uses and Achievement of Refracting Telescope:

 Refracting telescopes were noted for their use in astronomy as well as for terrestrial
viewing. Many early discoveries of the Solar System were made with singlet refractors.

 The use of refracting telescopic optics is ubiquitous in photography, and are also used in
Earth orbit.

 One of the more famous applications of the refracting telescope was when Galileo used it
to discover the four largest moons of Jupiter in 1609. Furthermore, early refractors were
also used several decades later to discover Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, along with
three more of Saturn's moons.

 In the 19th century, refracting telescopes were used for pioneering work on
astrophotography and spectroscopy, and the related instrument, the heliometer, was used
to calculate the distance to another star for the first time.

 Planet Pluto was discovered by looking at photographs (i.e., 'plates' in astronomy vernacular)
in a blink comparator taken with a refracting telescope, an astrograph with a 3 element 13-
inch lens.
Bibliography:
 https://www.britannica.com/science/light
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/refraction
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lens
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/optical_microscope
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/refracting_telescope
 Class 12 Physics NCERT Textbook.
Thank you