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Microscopic Measurements Laboratory Activity: Background Information

This document provides instructions for a microscopy lab activity where students will learn to make microscopic measurements using the metric system. The activity involves calculating total microscope magnification, measuring the diameter of microscope fields of view under low and high power, and using those measurements to estimate the size of small objects like hair. Students will learn to express microscopic measurements in microns and make conversions between millimeters and microns.

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Paige Evans
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106 views

Microscopic Measurements Laboratory Activity: Background Information

This document provides instructions for a microscopy lab activity where students will learn to make microscopic measurements using the metric system. The activity involves calculating total microscope magnification, measuring the diameter of microscope fields of view under low and high power, and using those measurements to estimate the size of small objects like hair. Students will learn to express microscopic measurements in microns and make conversions between millimeters and microns.

Uploaded by

Paige Evans
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Name _____________________________________________________ Hour_______________

Microscopic Measurements Laboratory Activity

The microscope can be used not only to observe very small objects, but also to measure their sizes.  Microscopic
measurements are expressed in units of the metric system, which is a decimal system
based on the meter.

Upon the completion of this activity the student will be able to:
1.  use the metric system for making measurements of very small objects with the aid of a microscope.
2.  utilize metric system conversions commonly used in biological studies when estimating
     the size of an object under the microscope.

Background Information
It is easy to calculate the amount of magnification produced by a compound microscope.  This is calculated by
multiplying the magnifying power of the objective lens times the magnifying power of the
ocular.  For example, a certain microscope may have an ocular of 10 X power and a low power objective
lens of 5 X power.  The total magnification of t his particular microscope under low power is 50 X.  This
means that an object viewed in this microscope would appear fifty times larger than it would to the
naked eye. The microscopes that we use in class have three different objective lenses: scanning lens (4X), low
power lens (10x), and high power lens (40X).

Although we can calculate the total magnification of the microscope, we do not know the size of the object
being observed unless we have a reference scale of some kind.  Many types of similar microscopic organisms
can be distinguished from each other, because they have completely different size
ranges.  Commonly in research and collegiate laboratories, a reference scale engraved on a glass
disk is placed between the two lenses which make up the ocular.  This scaled disk is called an OPTICAL
MICROMETER.  After proper adjustment, an object can be viewed in the microscope at the same time the
ocular micrometer is viewed and the size of the object is thus determined directly. 
While we do not possess this sort of fancy instrumentation, we can get perfectly good results
involving our microscopic measurements utilizing another technique which we shall utilize in this activity.
Calculating Total Magnification
1. If the magnification of the eyepiece is 10X and the magnification of the high power objective is
40X, what is the total magnification under high power?
_____________________________________________
2. How many times larger than life will a specimen appear under the magnification?
________________________________________

The scanning power objective lens (4X) is very low magnification. This is useful for locating a specimen
on the slide, but in many cases is not appropriate for observation.
Microscopic Measurements
You will now measure the diameters of the low power and the high power fields. This will enable you to
estimate the actual size of the specimen.

A) Place a paper ruler on the microscope stage so that you can see the millimeter scale under low
power. Place a one millimeter marking of your ruler at the far left hand side of the low power
field. You should see one other millimeter marking in your field of view.

Since we can’t use the microscope,


this is an image of what you would
have seen.

3. What is the approximate diameter of your


field of view (in millimeters) under low power?
__________________________________________
4. Divide the high power magnification of your microscope by the low power magnification to
determine how many times larger your low power field is than your high power field?
____________________________________
5. Now determine the diameter of your high power field of view by dividing the diameter of your
lower power field by the number you obtain above. High power field of
view=__________________________
Many of the specimens you will observe under the microscope will be smaller than 1 mm in size.

Because of this, microscopic measurements are often expressed in microns ( µm or micrometers). 1


mm= 1,000 microns

6. What is the diameter of your low power field and high power field in microns?
Low power field= _____________________________________

High power field=_____________________________________

Microscopic Calculations
Now that you have calculated the diameter of the field of view (in microns) for both the low
power and high power lens, we can use those measurements to estimate the size of small or trace objects.

Hair Sample

Total Magnification= 400X

To determine an approximate diameter of a single piece of hair, you must first estimate how many
pieces of hair, if stacked together, would it take to fit across half the diameter of your field of view.
Therefore it would take twice as many hairs to fill the entire field of view. In the picture above, it takes
about 11 hairs to fit across half the field of view, so it would take about 22 to fit across the entire field of
view. So for this example:

Diameter of one hair is 1/22nd of the field of view. For example, if your field of view was 500 microns
then,

Diameter of hair = (1/22) x500 microns = 23 microns

Determine the diameter of your hair in microns = ______________________________

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