Find the maximum magnifying power of a compound microscope having a 25 dioptre lens as the objective, a 5 dioptre lens as the eyepiece and the separation 30 cm between the two lenses. The least distance form clear vision is 25 cm.
Given data
Least distance of clear vision, D = 25 cm
Separation between the objective and the eyepiece, L = 30 cm
Magnifying power is maximum when the image is formed by the eyepiece at the least distance of clear vision which is 25cm for normal eye.
For eyepiece-
Power of the eyepiece = 5 D
The focal length of the eyepiece is given by
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So, 
 and ![]()
Using lens formula, for eyepiece
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For Objective lens-
Power of the objective lens = 25 D
The focal length of the objective lens can be calculated using-
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Let L be the length of the compound microscope and 
be the object distance and 
 be the
image distance for the objective lens.

So, the image distance for the objective lens will be-
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Since the image formed is real and inverted, the value of ![]()
Using lens formula
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cm
Now, to calculate maximum magnifying power of the compound microscope, we use,
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Hence, the maximum magnifying power of the compound microscope is 8.3831