microscopic measurements...

[pinkypig]

Hi can anyone help me with this....basically i want to know that if you want to measure an object under a microscope and the eye piece is smaller than the object even at low power how would you accuratly measure the object?

Thanks.

[pinkypig]

and also...is it better to use a low power or high power magnification when measuring a cell?and why is that the case?

[MichaelXY]

Read this.
http://faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/facul ... %20lab.htm

[pinkypig]

Thanks for the above site it is very useful!
but i'm still not sure about the first question asked which was:

i wanted to know that if you want to measure an object under a microscope and the eye piece is smaller than the object even at low power how would you accuratly measure the object?

Thanks

[MichaelXY]

Well, if I understand you correctly. You want to measure an object that exceed the FOV of your lowest power. My first thought is that if the object is large enough, just use a ruler. But let's say it is not. I made a image to illustrate.
So say you computed a FOV for your low power setting to be 4500um. Look at the picture shown. In this example. We can approximate 2.25 x 4500um.
Hope that helps.

[pinkypig]

what does FOV mean?

[MrMistery]

field of view

[pinkypig]

So would you have to move the slide across to measure the whole object?

[MichaelXY]

Higher quality microscopes have an adjusting knob for moving the stage, which is essentialy moving the slide, but with more precision. It is mentioned in that link I provided earlier, as well as FOV.

[pinkypig]

oh rite, thanks alot!