The world of the microscope

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  • Created by: Will Lang
  • Created on: 17-10-16 16:26

The world of the microscope

Most cells are so small that you can only view them under a microscope.

Light Microscopes

A light microscope reflects light from a natural source onto the specimen. The stage is where the specimen lies. The eyepiece lens is what you look through. The slide is what you place the specimen on. The mirror is what reflects the light. The objective lense alters the magnification. The focus wheel alters the resolution. The magnification is up to x2000.

Electron Microscopes

Electron microscopes are far more accurate. They use beams of electrons to hit the specimen and report back with an image. It can magnify up to x2000000.

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Magnification

You can calculate magnification:

magnification=size of image/size of real object

You can calculate the image size:

size of image=magnification x size of real object

You can calculate the real size:

size of real object=size of image/magnification.

Practice question

A student measures a human capillary of image size 5mm and magnification x1000.

What is the real size?

real size=size of image/magnification.         real size=5/1000=0.005nanometres.

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Units

1 kilometre (km)=1000 metres (m)

1 metre (m)=100 centimetres (cm)

1 centimetre (cm)=10 millimetres (mm)

1 millimetre (mm)=1000 micrometres (ųm)

1 micrometre (ųm)=1000 nanometres(nm)

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