Accuracy in Red Blood Cell Prac (1 Viewer)

[worldno17]

Hi guys,
For the practical about estimating the size of red blood cells (by counting the number of RBC along a diameter of the field of view), is it accurate?
The method definitely has a high limit of accuracy (estimation) but my experimental value was close to the true value of 6 to 8 micrometres.

So, is it accurate?

 

[captainhelium]

It generally isn't considered a very accurate experiment.

It was probably a coincidence that your results were close to the theoretical value but for exams I would recommend saying that the experiment was inaccurate to some extent due to the the following reasons:

- Most people probably had to estimate the number of red blood cells across the diameter as there may be areas across the field of view that are missing red blood cells (hence the need to estimate since you're trying to find how many RBC's in total can fit across the FOV)

- A mini-grid was most likely used which may result in estimations or vague approximations in calculating the field of view. A micro-grid would probably be a better piece of equipment (although not perfect either)

Hope that helped to some extent.

 

[Queenroot]

8 is the actual size