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What Is The Orientation Of The Image Of The 'E' Relative To Its Actual Orientation On The Microscope Slide?

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Matthew Crist answered
Without running the risk of sounding patronizing or stating the obvious, are you sure you are not confusing the position of the E on the microscope with its reflection when you look through the eye glass?

Obviously, when the E is looked at through the lens it is a reflection, so what you see is actually a mirror image of the slide that has been inserted into the microscope so it is probably reversed.

There are a number of well known laboratory exercises that involve placing a letter E under the microscope and seeing how it appears close up. Basically, items under a microscope are inverted and reversed, as well as being distorted by the convex lens and mirrors contained in the device, so most things which are examined are not as they would appear to the naked eye.

The letter E illustrates this more than most, hence why it is often used in lab experiments for students.

So, in conclusion, if you are asked to put a letter E under a microscope it will appear upside down and reversed. Also, if you move it to the right whilst still looking through the lens it will look as if it is moving to the left and vice versa. The same process applies to anything under the lens of a microscope but it may well be that you have been asked to look at this particular letter as it is the best example of how the lens of a microscope changes the appearance of things.

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