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How does a microscope let you see things that are really small? |
by Mya Kagan (whyzz writer) >> more about the author
Microscopes help us to see things that are too small for us to see using just our eyes. There are lots of things that exist in the world that we can’t see by just looking at them, but using technology like microscopes, we can get a better look!
Similar to eyeglasses or a magnifying glass, microscopes use lenses to bend an image so that it appears bigger. Think about those silly mirrors in Fun Houses. They bend your image so that parts of you look bigger, giving you a silly balloon-head or a giant round belly! The lens in microscope uses a similar idea – it bends the size of an object to make it look larger!
However, in order to see the image without it being bent out of shape like in a funny mirror, microscopes use a second lens to adjust the new, larger image back into shape. (You can try it out yourself in the experiment below!) Microscopes also use a light that bounces off a mirror to light up what you’re examining, and a tube-like eyepiece to collect what you’re looking at and direct it towards your eye!
The number of times bigger a microscope will make an image is usually written somewhere on the side of the microscope or lens being used. If it says “10x” then the image you see through the microscope is ten times larger than it actually is! If it says “60x” then it’s sixty times bigger!
Some of the things microscopes help us to see are bacteria, tiny little critters who live on and in all kinds of things in the environment, as well as cells, which are the very small building blocks which make up everything from our skin to the leaves on a tree!
Make your own microscope!
Using two magnifying glasses and a piece of old newspaper, you can make your very own microscope!
Lay the piece of newspaper down on a table. Hold one magnifying glass above the page -- do you see the way the image or words from the page are bigger, although bent out of shape?
Take the second magnifying glass and hold it somewhere between the first magnifying glass and yourself. Keeping the first magnifying glass still, move the second one up and down until the image below the two lenses becomes clear again! -- COOL!
Similar to eyeglasses or a magnifying glass, microscopes use lenses to bend an image so that it appears bigger. Think about those silly mirrors in Fun Houses. They bend your image so that parts of you look bigger, giving you a silly balloon-head or a giant round belly! The lens in microscope uses a similar idea – it bends the size of an object to make it look larger!
However, in order to see the image without it being bent out of shape like in a funny mirror, microscopes use a second lens to adjust the new, larger image back into shape. (You can try it out yourself in the experiment below!) Microscopes also use a light that bounces off a mirror to light up what you’re examining, and a tube-like eyepiece to collect what you’re looking at and direct it towards your eye!
The number of times bigger a microscope will make an image is usually written somewhere on the side of the microscope or lens being used. If it says “10x” then the image you see through the microscope is ten times larger than it actually is! If it says “60x” then it’s sixty times bigger!
Some of the things microscopes help us to see are bacteria, tiny little critters who live on and in all kinds of things in the environment, as well as cells, which are the very small building blocks which make up everything from our skin to the leaves on a tree!
Make your own microscope!
Using two magnifying glasses and a piece of old newspaper, you can make your very own microscope!
Lay the piece of newspaper down on a table. Hold one magnifying glass above the page -- do you see the way the image or words from the page are bigger, although bent out of shape?
Take the second magnifying glass and hold it somewhere between the first magnifying glass and yourself. Keeping the first magnifying glass still, move the second one up and down until the image below the two lenses becomes clear again! -- COOL!
