Back to examples

One change, explained

Why does the image move away as the candle approaches?

Move a candle and use three principal rays to follow the position and size of its real image.

Keep editing in Studio

As the candle approaches the focal point, why does the sharp real image move farther from the lens?

A converging lens must bring rays from one object point back together. When object distance decreases but remains beyond the focal length, those rays travel farther after the lens before crossing, so image distance and magnification increase.

Change the object distance from 35cm to 25cm and watch where the image starts.

scene candle_lens_distance

object candle height=5cm #gold
lens L type=converging focal_length=10cm #blue

candle images through L 35cm #red

drive candle object_distance=16cm duration=5s
show principal_rays image_distance magnification
scene candle_lens_distance

object candle height=5cm #gold
lens L type=converging focal_length=10cm #blue

candle images through L 25cm #red

drive candle object_distance=16cm duration=5s
show principal_rays image_distance magnification

Why does the image move away as the candle approaches?

01Object distance: 35 cm

candle lens distance Geometric optics diagram L L F F F′ F′ candle candle image candle′ image candle′
object distance 35cm image distance 14cm magnification -0.4
Diagram description

Animated physics diagram: candle_lens_distance; showing object distance, image distance, magnification.

02Object distance changed to 25 cm

candle lens distance Geometric optics diagram L L F F F′ F′ candle candle image candle′ image candle′
object distance 25cm image distance 16.67cm magnification -0.67
Diagram description

Animated physics diagram: candle_lens_distance; showing object distance, image distance, magnification.

As the candle approaches the focal point, why does the sharp real image move farther from the lens?

Keep the focal length at 10 cm. Changing object distance from 35 cm to 25 cm moves the real image from about 14 cm to about 16.7 cm. Near the focal point, the image recedes rapidly.

Keep editing in Studio