Good question. A tough one to answer in simple terms, without resorting to mathematics or diagrams. Let’s just use the simple example of a magnifying glass. The magnifying glass is shaped so that the light coming from an object travels through the glass such that an image is formed on the other side of the lens. This is purely a function of the geometry of the piece of glass. If the object has a particular size, then the image formed by the lens will have a different size. The ratio of the sizes is known as the magnification. By convention, magnifying glasses compare the size of the image seen through the lens to the size the object appears when held 25 cm away. The wikipedia entry for “magnifying glass” is ok, but gets quickly into the mathematics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnifying_glass
Good question. A tough one to answer in simple terms, without resorting to mathematics or diagrams. Let’s just use the simple example of a magnifying glass. The magnifying glass is shaped so that the light coming from an object travels through the glass such that an image is formed on the other side of the lens. This is purely a function of the geometry of the piece of glass. If the object has a particular size, then the image formed by the lens will have a different size. The ratio of the sizes is known as the magnification. By convention, magnifying glasses compare the size of the image seen through the lens to the size the object appears when held 25 cm away. The wikipedia entry for “magnifying glass” is ok, but gets quickly into the mathematics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnifying_glass
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