Microscope Notes
Microscopes are powerful scientific tools that can be used to view the world around us, especially the
world that is smaller than our naked eyes can perceive.
There are many types of microscopes. Three types are:
A. Light Microscopes – light passes through one or more lenses to produce and enlarged image of a
specimen.
In class, we use a compound light microscope
B. Electron Microscope (EM)
- forms an image of a specimen using a beam of electrons rather than light.
- has a MUCH higher magnifying and resolving capability than light microscopes.
- EMs must be operated in a vacuum, thus living cells cannot survive
C. Scanning Tunneling Microscopes (STM) – use a needle-like probe to measure differences in the
voltage caused by electrons that leak, or tunnel, from the surface of the object being viewed. A
computer tracks the movements and lets you see objects as small as individual atoms. The STM can be
used to study living organisms.
The image seen through a microscope is called a micrograph.
When the micrograph is displayed or drawn it includes:
Magnification – the ability to make an image appear larger than its actual size.
(i.e. if something has a magnification of 20X, the image is 20 times bigger than it would be in
real life)
1.
To calculate Magnification: Multiply magnification of eyepiece (always 10X) times the magnification
of the objective lens (look on the lens).
2.
Title – what is the diagram showing me?
Resolution – The measure of the clarity of
an image poor resolution makes a fuzzy image.
Magnification
A good diagram will look like this:
YOU WILL LOOSE POINTS
IF IT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THIS!
Title