Final answer:
A thin piece of glass used on a microscope is known as a microscope slide, which holds the specimen to be examined. Microscopes often utilize thin lenses for image clarity without significant dispersion or aberrations, and the lens system inverts the orientation of the viewed specimens.
Step-by-step explanation:
The thin piece of glass on a microscope is called a microscope slide. It is used to hold specimens for examination under the microscope. The specimen is placed on this slide, which is then positioned on the stage of the microscope. Depending on the objective lens being used, either the coarse focusing knob (for 4x and 10x lenses) or the fine focusing knob (for 40x or 100x lenses) is used to adjust the focus and obtain a clear image of the specimen. Additionally, microscopes commonly employ thin lenses in their construction. Thin lenses are optical elements with a thickness that allows light to refract without causing significant dispersion or aberrations. This quality is important for creating clear magnified images of microscopic specimens. The light microscope, a tool frequently used in laboratories, uses a lens system that inverts the orientation of the image, which is important to understand when observing living cells or other specimens under magnification.