Video Transcript
Complete the sentence. A microscope blanks the object you
are looking at so you can see more details of its structure. (A) Colors, (B) magnifies, (C)
minimizes, (D) rotates, or (E) moves.
To answer this question, let us
look at why and how a microscope is used. We use microscopes to look at
specimens. Microscopes work using lenses,
which are pieces of glass or other transparent material with curved sides that bend
the light rays to form an image of an object. So how do microscopes work?
The light microscopes used in
schools usually have two lenses, one at each end of the body tube. When we want to look at an object,
we put it on a glass slide and put the slide on the stage. Light rays from a light source
below the stage pass through the object into the first of two lenses at the bottom
of the body tube. This lens is closest to the object,
so it is called the objective lens.
As the light rays pass through the
lens, they bend and form an image of the object, which is larger than the object
itself. The light rays from this image then
pass along the body tube to the next lens, which is found in the eyepiece. This lens is simply called the
eyepiece lens. As the rays of light pass through
the eyepiece lens, they are again bent. This makes the image even larger,
enabling us to see the details of the object we want to study. Because these lenses are making the
image larger, they are known as magnifying lenses.
Now that we have reviewed how and
why we use a microscope, let us return to the question. It asks us to fill in the blank in
the statement. A microscope blanks the object you
are looking at so you can see more details of its structure. We now know the answer is option
(B), magnifies.
