Question

The nature of the image formed on the retina of the human eye is:
(A) virtual and erect
(B) virtual and inverted
(C) real and erect
(D) real and inverted

Answer 1

Hint: An image is formed when light rays, after reflection or refraction, meet at a point. Although in some cases the light rays do not meet at a point they appear to diverge from a point or we extend the rays backwards and converge them to find out the image location. When the light rays converge, a real image is formed.


Complete step by step answer:
For clear vision, the incident rays from the object must be focused on the retina. Retina has a dense concentration of receptors that send stimulus to the brain and we perceive the image. The light rays entering the top of the lens are converged at the bottom of the retina and the rays from the bottom of the lens are converged at the top of the retina to form a real and inverted image.
Hence we can say that option (D) is the correct answer.


Additional Information:
The lens in the eye is attached with ciliary muscles that help contract the lens and expand it, so that the image can be sharply focused on the retina. This is known as the power of accommodation of the lens. For distant vision, the eye lens is relaxed and has the lowest power and for close vision, it has the greatest power.

Note: We know that all real images are inverted and all virtual images are erect. If we look at the options (B) and (C), we can easily rule them out as incorrect options because no virtual image can be inverted and no real image can be erect. We can reduce the no. of probable correct options by such elimination processes.