A Sample Must Contain Many Microorganisms in Order to See

question 39

Multiple Choice

A sample must contain many microorganisms in order to see any using microscopy techniques.Why?

• A)The area on a microscope slide is very large compared to the relative size of microbes,and you take a very small amount of your sample to place on the slide surface.Therefore,you must have a large number of microbes initially in the culture to increase the chances that you'll come across one or more when looking at the slide surface through the magnifying lenses of the microscope.
• B)Bacteria are very small,of course.If you don't have a LOT of them,how are you going to see them?
• C)This is false-microscopy allows us to magnify a specimen to the point where we would be able to visualize even just a few microbes on the surface of the slide.As such,even if there are only a few microbes in a sample,we could easily visualize them with a microscope.
• D)Microscopes only magnify what's on the slide.If you don't have a lot of microbes on the slide surface,you can't magnify the specimen enough to see them as individual cells.

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Definitions:

Overextension

The application of a word or concept beyond its usual scope, common in the language development of children, where they attribute broader meanings to words.

Fast Mapping

The ability, especially noted in children, to rapidly learn and retain new words or concepts after minimal exposure.

Colours

Visual perceptions that result from the way an object reflects or emits light into the eye, categorized typically as red, blue, green, etc.

Overextensions

A linguistic phenomenon commonly observed in children's language development, where a child applies a word in a broader context than is appropriate.