Microscope Parts Crossword Puzzle

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Microscope Parts Crossword

Read each clue and write the answer in the squares that start at its number, one letter in each square.

This grid is wider than a phone screen, so it scrolls sideways. It prints whole.

Tap a square, and its clue shows here.

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Word bank

  • Arm
  • Base
  • Coarse focus
  • Condenser
  • Eyepiece
  • Fine focus
  • Illuminator
  • Mechanical stage
  • Ocular
  • Stage clips

Type in a square and the next one takes over. Tap the same square again, or press Space, to switch between Across and Down. Arrow keys move around the grid, Enter goes to the next clue, and a clue takes you to its squares.

Print gives 3 pages on Letter or A4: the grid, the clues on a sheet of their own, then the answer key. The squares print 10 mm wide. For a PDF, choose Save as PDF in the print window.

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Answer key: Microscope Parts Crossword

1M2BE3COARSEFOCUSSH4SE5OCULARTNAIG6FIN7EFOCUSEYACELLPS8A9ILLUMINATORPEAMSCG10CONDENSER

Across 3 COARSEFOCUS · 5 OCULAR · 6 FINEFOCUS · 9 ILLUMINATOR · 10 CONDENSER

Down 1 MECHANICALSTAGE · 2 BASE · 4 STAGECLIPS · 7 EYEPIECE · 8 ARM

Next step Next: find each part on a labeled microscope

All 38 clues

Show all clues and answers

Parts and Their Jobs 18

  • Aperture Hole in the middle of the platform that lets light up through
  • Arm Curved pillar you hold with one hand when you carry the instrument
  • Base Wide bottom section; your other hand goes under it when you carry the instrument
  • Body tube Hollow column joining the top lens to the lower lenses
  • Coarse focus The larger knob, for quick rough focusing with the 4x and 10x lenses only
  • Condenser Lens under the platform that gathers light and focuses it on the specimen
  • Eyepiece The part at the top that you look into, usually marked 10x
  • Fine focus The smaller knob, the only one to turn at 40x and 100x
  • Illuminator Built-in light source in the bottom of the instrument
  • Iris diaphragm Adjustable opening under the platform that controls how much light reaches the specimen
  • Mechanical stage Geared glass holder moved front to back and side to side with small knobs
  • Mirror What older instruments had instead of a bulb, to bounce daylight up through the specimen
  • Nosepiece Turret you rotate to click a different lower lens into place
  • Objective One of the lenses close to the specimen; a school microscope has three or four of them
  • Ocular Another name for the lens nearest your eye, from the Latin for eye
  • Rheostat Dimmer dial that makes the lamp brighter or dimmer
  • Stage Flat platform where the glass holding the specimen rests
  • Stage clips Two springy metal holders that pin the glass down when there is no mechanical holder

Using It, and Its History 20

  • Cavity slide Glass with a shallow well in it for liquids and thicker samples
  • Compound Kind of light microscope with two sets of lenses, one near the eye and one near the specimen
  • Cover slip Small thin square of glass laid on top to keep the specimen flat
  • Dry mount Simplest preparation: a hair, feather or pollen grain simply laid on the glass
  • Electron Kind of microscope that uses a beam of these particles instead of light, first built in 1931
  • Field of view The bright circle you see; it gets smaller as power goes up
  • Graticule Grid of fine lines used to estimate the size of what you see
  • Immersion oil Drop placed between the 100x lens and the glass because it bends light almost as glass does
  • Janssen Dutch spectacle-making family credited by some with the first two-lens instrument, around 1590
  • Leeuwenhoek Dutch microscopist who saw tiny living things through a single lens in the 1670s
  • Magnification How many times bigger the image looks: 10x times 40x gives 400x
  • Micrographia Robert Hooke's 1665 book of drawings, where he gave plant cells their name
  • Microtome Machine that cuts tissue into very thin sections for viewing
  • Parfocal Describes lenses that stay nearly in focus when you switch power
  • Resolution How well two points very close together can be told apart
  • Scanning Nickname of the 4x lens, used first to find the specimen
  • Slide Thin glass rectangle, about 75 by 25 mm, that holds what you want to look at
  • Stain Dye added to a sample so its parts stand out with more contrast
  • Stereo Low-power, two-eyed kind used for dissection, lit from above
  • Wet mount Preparation where the specimen sits in a drop of water or iodine under a glass square

How this list was compiled: 38 clues written for this site in two sets: the parts of a compound light microscope clued by their job, and the words of using one (slides, mounts, stains, magnification) with the people and kinds of microscope. Facts were checked against Wikipedia's articles on the optical microscope, the microscope slide, the stereo microscope and the people named, and against the part descriptions of this site's microscope diagram (OpenStax Microbiology 2.3). No clue was copied from a published puzzle. Licence: own work

How it works

This microscope parts crossword draws from 38 clues: every part of a school compound microscope clued by its job, then slides, mounts, magnification and the people behind the instrument.

Read the full guide

Two sets

Parts and Their Jobs runs from Eyepiece and Nosepiece to Condenser and Fine focus. Using It, and Its History covers Wet mount, Field of view, Parfocal and Leeuwenhoek. All mixes both.

Print or solve

Print gives the puzzle with the answer key on the last sheet. On screen, tap a square and type. Turn off the word bank under More options for a harder grid.

  • Work top to bottom: light comes up from the Illuminator through the Condenser and the specimen to the Objective and Eyepiece.
  • Two-word answers such as Cover slip and Fine focus are written without the space in the grid.

Questions and answers

Is there a microscope crossword with answers?

Yes. Every print ends with the answer key, and Show all clues and answers, under the puzzle, lists all 38 clues with their answers.

Which microscope does it describe?

A compound light microscope as used in school labs, with a built-in lamp, three or four objectives and coarse and fine focus knobs. Older models that use a mirror instead of a lamp are clued too, and so are the stereo and electron kinds.

How is it different from the microscope diagram?

The diagram asks you to find each part on a drawing. The crossword asks you to recall and spell it from what it does, and adds slide, mount and magnification words a drawing cannot show.

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