How to Determine the Total Magnification of a Microscope
- 1). Look at the objective lens on your microscope and the eyepiece lens. Each lens should be labeled with the magnification power of the lens: 10x, 20x, etc. If you're working a practice problem on a physics quiz that doesn't give you this information, skip this and the following step and proceed to Step 3.
- 2). Multiply the magnification power of the objective by the magnification of the eyepiece to determine total magnification. If the eyepiece is 10x, for example, and the objective is 4x, total magnification is 40x.
- 3). Use the following equation to find magnification if you're working a problem on a physics quiz: M = -L / f1 (25 cm / f2), where M is magnification, f1 is the focal length of the objective, f2 is the focal length of the eyepiece and L is the lens spacing. The above is based on the equation for total magnification, magnification of objective x magnification of eyepiece, and the equation for single lens magnification.
