A thin lens forms real images when the object is placed beyond the focal point of the lens. The light rays from the object converge at the focal point and then continue to converge beyond the lens, forming a real image on the opposite side of the lens.
Real images are inverted because the light rays passing through the lens are refracted, or bent, towards the center of the lens. This results in an inverted image being formed on the opposite side of the lens.
No, a thin lens can only produce an image that is the same size or smaller than the object. This is because the size of the image is determined by the distance between the object and the lens, as well as the focal length of the lens.
The magnification of a thin lens can be calculated by dividing the height of the image by the height of the object. This is also equal to the distance between the image and the lens divided by the distance between the object and the lens.
A real image is formed by the actual convergence of light rays and can be projected onto a screen. A virtual image, on the other hand, is formed by the apparent divergence of light rays and cannot be projected onto a screen. Thin lenses can only produce real images, not virtual images.