What factors determine the focal length of a lens?

1 Answer
Mark C.
Dec 27, 2017

Two things, curvature and the material it is made from.

Explanation:

Curvature is defined as 1/radius of the circle (or arc) describing the curve, clearly the ‘fatter’ the lens, the more powerful it is and the shorter the focal length will be.

Secondly, the refractive index determines how much the light is bent on entering a dense medium. Better lenses have higher refractive indices as they can be thinner (lighter, cheaper) for the same power.

Related questions
Impact of this question
5244 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License