Question

The image produced by a concave lens is
A. Always virtual and reduced in size
B. Always virtual and enlarged
C. Always real
D. Sometimes real, sometimes virtua

Answer 1

A concave lens has at least one inwardly curving surface. It is a divergent lens, which means that light rays refracted via it are stretched out. So the concave lenses form the image as virtual and the size of the image will be reduced.

Complete step by step solution:
The concave lens will diverge the light rays, so it is also called a diverging lens. It is called so because it has a surface that is curved inside and when the parallel beam of light falls on it diverges at one point.
If we draw a concave lens and place the object (O) in front of this shown in the diagram, the image (I) will be virtual and reduced in size.
The concave lens forms an image as virtual. From the concave lens, the rays of the image are diverging, so the image size is reduced in nature.
So the option (A) is correct.

Additional Information:
Let us consider the other options:
Option (B)
The concave lens image is always virtual and it's not enlarged in the image size. Because the rays are diverging. So the image size is not enlarged, it always reduces the image size. So the option (B) is wrong.
Option (C)
Real images are formed by the convergence of the rays. But here the rays are diverging. So the concave lens didn’t form a real image. So the option (C) is wrong.
Option (D)
The concave lens will form an image as always virtual. It does not produce the virtual image sometimes. From option (C) the concave lens didn’t form a real image. So the option (D) is wrong.

Note:
A collection of focus points of light rays coming from an object is defined as an image in optics. A virtual image is a collection of focus points created by extensions of diverging rays, whereas a real image is a collection of focus points created by converging rays. To put it another way, a virtual image is created by tracing real rays that originate from an optical device (lens, mirror, or a combination of these) backward to observed or apparent ray divergences. Virtual rays are traditionally depicted as dotted lines in optical system diagrams.