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suppose you wanted special glasses designed to let you see underwater without a face mask. should the glasses use a converging or diverging lens? explain.

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Final answer:

To see underwater without a face mask, glasses with a diverging lens should be used, as they correct for the distortion of light passing from water to air, similar to the correction for nearsightedness.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you want special glasses designed to let you see underwater without a face mask, you should use a diverging lens. This is because the corrective mechanism for nearsightedness, which is similar to the underwater vision problem, requires a diverging eyeglass lens. When light passes from water to air, it bends away from the normal due to the change in refractive index. To correct for this, the glasses should diverge the light rays so that they can be appropriately focused on the retinas inside the eyes.

Remember, a diverging lens corrects nearsightedness by reducing the optical power of an eye that over converges light rays. This principle is applicable underwater where objects appear blurry because light rays bend when transitioning from water to air. A diverging lens compensates for this effect by forming an image that is closer to the eye than the actual object, enabling clearer underwater vision.

User Evette
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Final answer:

For seeing underwater without a mask, converging lenses are needed to converge the diverged light rays that are caused by the refractive properties of water, in order to correct the diverging effect and allow clear vision.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you wanted special glasses designed to let you see underwater without a face mask, converging lenses would be ideal. This is because light rays from underwater objects enter the eye diverged due to the refractive properties of water. A converging lens would help to correct this diverging effect by converging the light rays before they enter the eye, allowing the formation of a clear image on the retina. Diverging lenses, on the other hand, are used to correct nearsightedness by spreading out light rays before they enter the eye, counteracting the eye's tendency to over converge light. Using a diverging lens underwater would exacerbate the issue of diverged light entering the eye and result in even blurrier vision.

User MikeTWebb
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