• thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
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    10 hours ago

    people with good vision can probably see a single gold atom, I seem to remember that one useless fact about the smallest things we can see

    • Occultist0178@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Not even close, a gold atom is about 140 pm, while the diffraction limit for optical microscopes is around 200 nm, so 1000 Times bigger. And this does not mean that you could see a 200 nm object, only that you can differentiate 2 objects that are at least 200 nm apart. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction-limited_system So no it is not possible to see atoms with visible light photons.

    • apex32@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      Nope. Atoms are WAY too small to see, even with the most powerful optical microscopes.

      You may be thinking of a human egg cell, which can be seen with the naked eye.