Final answer:
Light rays that pass through the edge of a curved lens refract more than those through the center due to the thicker peripheral regions of the lens and the law of refraction, resulting in more significant bending towards the optical axis.
Step-by-step explanation:
Light rays that pass through the edge of a curved lens do indeed refract more than those that pass through the center. This phenomenon can be understood by considering the law of refraction, which states that light bends toward the normal when entering a medium with a higher index of refraction.
In the thin-lens approximation, the center of the lens is thinner and closer to being flat compared to the edges. A light ray passing through the center, such as light ray 2 in the diagram, would be undeviated or refracted minimally due to the negligible difference in medium density in this area. Conversely, light rays passing near the edges of the lens are subjected to a greater degree of curvature, causing a stronger deviation in direction. This is because the peripheral portions of a lens are thicker, and therefore, light spends more time traveling through the higher index medium of the lens, resulting in more significant bending towards the optical axis.
The path that light rays take through different parts of a lens is crucial in ray tracing, which is the technique used to graphically determine how light is focused to form images.