Question

A light source is placed 100 cm away from a screen. A converging lens placed at a certain position between the source and the screen focuses the image of the source on the screen. The lens is moved a distance of 40 cm and it is found that it again focuses the image of the source on the screen. The focal length of the lens is :

• A. 21 cm
• B. 30 cm
• C. 40 cm
• D. 67 cm

Answer 1

The correct option is A 21 cm

The expression for focal length by displacement method is given as follows.

$f=\frac{D^2-x^2}{4D}$

where,

$D$ - the distance between the object and screen

$x$ - the distance between the two positions of the lens.

Here, D = 100 cm and x = 40 cm.

So, $f=\frac{D^2-x^2}{4D}=\frac{{100}^2-{40}^2}{4\times 100}=21cm$.

Hence, the focal length of the lens is 21 cm.