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Anonymous Poster #1

Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 6:01 AM

Hello everybody, I am interested in measuring the thickness of the dragonfly wings.

shall I prefer spectrophotometer which measures thickness upto 0.3 micrometer?

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#1

Re: Micro thickness measurement

07/28/2014 6:15 AM

Preferable than what?

Presumably you don't want to kill them before measurement?

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#2

Re: Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 8:19 AM

I don't see how you would use a spectrophotometer to measure thickness. A spectrophotometer measures the transmission of light as a function of wavelength.

This might help:

http://iopscience.iop.org/0957-0233/7/12/006

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#3

Re: Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 9:19 AM

I would consider simple optics for your measurement. Anything that has to make contact with a wing (micrometer, caliper, etc.) could easily damage a wing. Good luck getting a wing to hold still long enough for a measurement without killing the insect.

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#4

Re: Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 10:25 AM

Laser measuring systems are capable of making non-contact measurements with this resolution. Keyence is one of many manufacturers of these systems, but they are not cheep

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#5

Re: Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 10:27 AM
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#6
In reply to #5

Re: Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 10:28 AM
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#7
In reply to #5

Re: Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 1:21 PM

As I suggested in #2.

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#8
In reply to #7

Re: Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 2:06 PM

Oh for Pete's sake. There's your GA.

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#9

Re: Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 3:22 PM

Not sure what "measures thickness upto 0.3 micrometer" means????

That's 1.18110236 × 10-5 or one angstrom.

You'll never get there.

AFAIN laser resolution only goes down to 12.5 angstroms.

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#11
In reply to #9

Re: Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 6:54 PM

??? I make 0.3 micrometer (μm) = 300 nanometre (nm) = 3000 Angstrom

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#12
In reply to #11

Re: Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 7:12 PM

OOPS.

3000 Å is correct. Don't even know how I got the other result.

I hate it when people want me to work when I'm trying to CR4.

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#10

Re: Micro Thickness Measurement

07/28/2014 5:52 PM

Why measure when you can Google?

These guys

http://www.plosone.org/article/authors/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0067893

... say that a dragonfly wing is about 3 µm thick.

The article describes the processes used to determine this. This article is actually sort of an interesting read. Amazing creature, the dragonfly.

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