Equation 6 · Part 8 · How Scientific Instruments and Metrology Actually Work
Denominator: nsinα
What this part means
The complete quantity below the fraction bar; it must be nonzero for this division.
Its job in the formula
nsinα occurs below the fraction bar. The quantity above the bar is divided by this expression; zero is excluded as a denominator.
Full expression→Denominator: nsinα→Article meaning
The passage around this formula
…system with a circular aperture is bounded, in the simplest diffraction-limited approximation, by a form of the Rayleigh criterion: . where is the wavelength of the illuminating radiation, and n is the numerical aperture of the imaging system. For visible light this caps optical microscopy at roughly 200 nanometres — far too coarse to resolve individual atoms, whose spacing in a solid is typically a few tenths of a nanometre. Electron microscopy exploits the far shorter de…
Learn the underlying idea
A fraction a/b means a divided by b. The top number is the numerator; the bottom number is the denominator, and it cannot be zero.
Open the illustrated fractions: division written vertically guide →
Sources cited in the article section
- [8] Imaging single atoms using secondary electrons with an aberration-corrected electron microscope ↗
- [7] Electron ptychography of 2D materials to deep sub-ångström resolution ↗
These citations provide research context; check each source for the exact claim it supports.