A commoon microscope
Microscopes are used to look at things closely or magnify those which are very tiny and see them enlarged many times. The power of a microscope is described with a number followed by the letter "x." For example, if through a microscope you can see something 25 times larger than actual size, then the microscope's magnification power is 25x. Microscopes reveal those things that we are unable to see because of their tiny nature. Microscopes bring these tiny things into light and make them visible. By magnifying things, microscopes scale us deep into the world of cells and atoms.
Invisible Made Visible
A powerful microscope can tune your eyes to see things, for example, if you look at your hands through a microscope you will see germs crawling over them. Because you cannot see a thing, it doesn't mean it is not there. For instance, television and radio broadcasts are consistently going on top of our head literally and unless you have a suitable electronic TV or radio receiver, you cannot understand what is happening.
Significance of Microscope
Science has made it possible to understand that there are so many things going on in a microscopic level, which can make our lives better. It is through microscopes we came to know from scientists that all living things are made of cells. Cells are akin to factories that are working overtime.
Magnifying Things
Microscopes are tubes with lenses at the end, which are glass pieces curved and designed to steer rays of light. Magnifying glass is the simple microscope, which is simply a lone convex lens. A simple microscope can magnify things up to five to 10 times. Compound microscopes use a minimum of two lenses (i.e. objective and ocular lenses) to produce an enlarged image. The objective lens is set above an object while through the ocular lens you see the examined object. Most compound microscopes can magnify from 10 to100 times.
Understanding Magnification
To understand how a microscope magnifies, consider a fly sitting on a table beside you. You cannot see clearly by the naked eye its big, compound eyes that are only a few millimeters across. A microscope magnifies the image to such an extent that your eye can discern the details of the tiny fly eyes and its 6,000 tiny parts, each one a miniature functioning eye. A microscope performs this task with glass lenses through which minute light rays are separated coming from the tiny things and spread apart to appear like they are from a bigger object.
Electron Microscopes
Light is made up of energy particles called photons. These are 200 times thinner than a human hair. But there are smaller things than this. For seeing this light, we need to use electrons which are small negatively charged particles going around inside atoms. Microscopes equipped with electrons to magnify these tiniest of all things are called electron microscopes.
Tags: microscope magnifies, simple microscope, through microscope, tiny things
