Question

The eyepiece of a compound telescope has a focal length of 12 cm and the objective lens has a focal length of 16 m. What is the overall magnification of the telescope?

Answer 1

The magnification is 133X

Step-by-step explanation:

For a refractor telescope using convex lenses, the overall magnification os calculated as by dividing the focal length of the objective by that of the eyepiece.

`M = (f(obj))/(f(eye))`

So:

`M = (16 m)/(12 cm)`

Care must be taken with the units, in this case they are in meters and centimeters, they should be converted into the same unit before calculating:

`M = (16 m)/(0.12 m) = 133`