How does a microscope work?

Light waves are bent as they travel through glass increasing the ability to see items at a much more magnified level.

First, we have to light up the specimen. A mirror mounted under the microscope stand does the job. Light bounces off the mirror, passes through and around our specimen (mounted firmly to a microscope slide), and into the objective lenses. These lenses bend some of the spread out light beams from the specimen into straight line paths that travel through the microscope tube. Next, the light beams reach the eyepiece lenses. These lenses bend the light back into your eye, so you can see the specimen up close.