Question

While looking at a sample through a microscope on low power (40x, field of view is 4.0 mm), a student observed an organism that appeared to occupy half of the field of view. If the diagram he drew had a scale of 1.0 mm : 2.5 cm, how big did he draw the organism? (2 marks)

Answer 1

The student drew the organism as 5.0 cm in diameter.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how big the organism was when drawn by the student, we can use the information about the microscope's field of view and the scale of the diagram. Since the organism appeared to occupy half of the field of view, we can calculate its size by dividing the field of view by 2. In this case, the field of view is 4.0 mm, so the organism would be 2.0 mm.

Next, we need to convert the size from millimeters to centimeters to match the scale of the diagram. Using the scale of 1.0 mm : 2.5 cm, we can set up a proportion and solve for the unknown number of centimeters.

1.0 mm / 2.5 cm = 2.0 mm / x cm

Cross-multiplying, we get x cm = (2.0 mm * 2.5 cm) / 1.0 mm = 5.0 cm. So, the student drew the organism as 5.0 cm in diameter.