Week 5 - Testing the polarizing microscope using various samples

                   WEEK 5 - TESTING THE POLARIZING MICROSCOPE USING VARIOUS SAMPLES

Hi, guys! Its week 5 already! Fuhh... how fast time flies, isn't it ?  😊

So without further due, lets get started!

For week 5, we are testing various samples using the polarizing microscope for both of the lab sessions. Basically, this week is all about capturing various samples under the polarizing microscope. We were amazed of how beautiful these samples are!!! Truly magnificient ❤

Before that, lets clean the polarizer film first!

The preparation we did before the testing session

Here are the various samples that we tested:-

1. Toothbrush

2. Polyethylene plastic bag

3. Sand

4. Leaf

5. Liquid crystal

6. Outer layer of onion. 

(can you see the cell wall? it is very clear, right? 😍 )

7.  Washer

MAGNIFICATION

Every microscope has their own magnification - magnification of the microscope determine their efficiency and therefore, our microscope too has its own magnification power!

The way to determine the magnification of a microscope is by using the formula:

Total Magnification = M1 x M2

where

M1 = Linear magnification of objective lens

M2 = Linear magnification of eyepiece

In our case, the objective lens is the lens we extracted from the laser pointer and eyepiece is the camera from the smartphone! Thus, the way to calculate the total magnification of our DIY microscope is:

Total Magnification = Linear Magnification of laser pointer lens  x  Linear Magnification by smartphone camera

We then took a copper wire with diameter of 0.65mm (measured by micrometer screw gauge) and observe it under our microscope. 

Micrometer screw gauge

The precaution here is never zoom the phone camera in order to get accurate reading. The diameter of the shown copper wire image in the smartphone was measured to be 0.75cm. Diameter in the smartphone is divided by the real diameter in order to obtain linear magnification of laser pointer lens. The result we obtain is 7.7x magnification.

Then, its time to obtain linear magnification by smartphone camera. This can be simply done by zooming in the smartphone camera and observe the reading shown directly. But however, as iPhone do not shows the magnification power while zooming in, we used another camera apps named 30x Zoom Digital Video Camera which having that function to complete our calculation.

But however, be noted that every different smartphone or device used for the microscope gives different total magnification because they all have different diameter length shown without zooming in or out the camera initially. Anyhow, the total magnification can be easily calculated using the formula and method mentioned above.

What have we learned?

  Every problem has a solution.

  In our case, the linear magnification of the phone is very important part to obtain. However, unlike other smartphones, iPhone did not show the magnification power while zooming in. Therefore, we have searched for several websites on Internet to find the information about how much can you zoom for iPhone, but we could not find any of it. We then installed an application called 30x Zoom Digital Video Camera which can zoom up to 30x magnifcation power! Thats it! So we can say that every problem has their own solution, right ? Just stay calm and try to find another alternatives because sometimes, life doesn't always give something that you want.

Thats all for this week, guys!

Stay tuned for more updates!

Byeeee! 

👋👋👋👋

XOXO 💘,

Team Sotong