true or false atoms are large enough to be seen to be with a compound light microscope

Answer 1

Hi, Amari,

The answer is false. Compound light microscopes have magnifications up to about 1000x (https://www.microscopeworld.com/p-3470-what-is-a-compound-microscope.aspx#:~:text=Compound%20microscopes%20typically%20provide%20magnification,identified%20with%20the%20naked%20eye.) With such magnification, one can observe objects which are roughly 180 microns (or 0.18 mm) in size. A human hair is 70 microns in thickness, so a compound light microscope could detect about two human hairs, side-by-side (or roughly the size of a grain of sand). By contrast, bacteria are about 3 microns in size, and the diameter of one of the largest atoms (cesium, or Cs) is only 343 picometers. A picometer (10^-9 meter) is one millionth the length of a micron, so the magnification of a compound light microscope has essentially one millionth the magnification power necessary to see any atoms.

Thanks,

Chris