PRACTICAL Name:

4 Measuring cells
You need:
■ microscopes ■ onions and moss plants
■ slides and coverslips ■ clear plastic rulers
■ razor blades ■ salt and other crystals
■ Petri dishes ■ insect slides (permanent)

Measuring a field of view

1 Place a clear plastic ruler under a microscope and focus on it
with low power magnification. How many millimetres wide is
the field of view?
2 Problem: Microscopic objects are measured in micrometres
(one micrometre is written 1mm). 1mm 5 1000mm. Convert your
field of view to micrometres.

Measuring onion cells

Ruler
3 Prepare a slide of onion cells. Look at the slide under low power
magnification. How many cells fit across the field of vision? In
the drawing on the right, four and a half cells fill a field of view Millimetre marks
2200 mm wide. What is average length of each cell?
4 What is the average length, in micrometres, of onion cells in Cell

your slide? Turn the slide around and calculate the average width
of the cells.
5 You now know the length in micrometres of one onion cell.
Use this information, and your onion slide, to calculate the 1 2 3 4 ½
field of vision in micrometres under medium and high power
magnification.

More things to do
6 Using the technique you have learned, measure:
a) the length and width of a moss leaf cell
b) the width of a human hair
c) the average size of sugar, salt and other crystals
7 Look at permanent slides of insects and measure various parts,
such as the width of scales on a butterfly’s wing, the width of
lenses in an insect’s compound eye, the size of a fly’s foot, etc.

Your teacher will be looking for:

HAZARD WARNING
■ careful use of the apparatus given
■ accurate measurements and calculations Razor blades are sharp, handle
■ good presentation of results with care.

© OUP: this may be reproduced for class use solely for the purchaser’s institute