Microscopy

Question 1

What are the parts of a light microscope?

Answer 1

• Eye piece lens (fixed magnification)
• Objective lenses (different magnifications)
• Coarse focusing knob (on top and bigger)
• Fin focusing knob (on bottom and smaller)
• Microscope slide (holds object)
• Stage (slide is placed)
• Light source (can be mirror)

Question 2

What is the difference between the object and the image?

Answer 2

• Object is the real thing that we are looking at
• Image is the thing we see when we look down the microscope

Question 3

What is magnification?

Answer 3

• How many times larger the image is than the object

Question 4

Light vs electron microscope

Answer 4

• Light microscope pros: cheaper, easier to use
• Light microscope cons: limited resolution and limited magnification; can’t see sub-cellular structures
• Electron microscope pros: much higher resolution and magnification; can see sub-cellular structures
• Electron microscope cons: more expensive, harder to use

Question 5

How to convert between nm, um and mm

Answer 5

• um to nm = x1000
• mm to nm = x1000
• nm < um < mm