Introduction to microscopes:

• “Micro” refers to “tiny” and “Scope” refers to ‘view or look at”

• Microscopes are instruments designed to produce magnified visual or photographic images of objects too small to be seen with the naked eye and so they can be studied.

• Figure 9.01 (from AWL Inc.,) shows typical examples of images at various levels and the types of microscopes needed to study the object of the interest.

Figure 9.01: Typical examples of images at various levels and types of microscopes needed for analysis.

• While naked eye helps to view the objects down to 1 mm, light and electron microscopes are indeed needed to study the objects in the range 1 mm - 300 nm and 300 nm - 0.2 nm, respectively.