Compound Microscopes

In 6th grade science we have been using compound microscopes. Compound microscopes are super fun to use. They are definitely no ordinary microscope. The compound microscope has one eyepiece that you look through that magnifies the specimen 10x. In addition to the eyepiece there are three different lenses that you can look though. You switch between them to get different magnifications. The high power lens magnification is 40x, the medium power lens magnification is 10x, and the low power lens magnifies the specimen 4x. We learned that to find the total magnification of each lens multiply the lens power by the eyepiece magnification. So the total magnification for high power would be 400x because 40 times 10 equals 400. Also under the compound microscope everything is the opposite. So if your specimen is too far to the right, and you try to move it left it will appear to move more to the right. And we did a lab on the letter E under the microscope, and it was upside down. We love using the compound microscope! (By Violet)