Discussion:

Shown below is an image captured by a Scanning Electron Microscope from a test specimen that
has undergone a fatigue test:

From the above image, we note that the grains of the material are broken in a relatively smooth
manner as a result of the load cycling of the test. Due to the nature of load cycling, the material
will be placed under high strain, the energy absorbed will be dispersed inside the crystal structure
of the material following each application. From this, it can be concluded that at the moment of
fracture each atom in the material will more or less be at the same energy state as that of nearby
atoms. This will result in a lack of grains as the material fractures uniformly.
As such, we do not observe small grains on the surface of the material upon scanning. However,
when a continuous load is applied on the material for a tensile test, we observe the following
microstructure:

From the above image, we can see that tensile tests result in a large number of deformations as
indicated by the large number of grains. Due to the nature of the loading, atoms located towards
the center of the sample tend to be under higher strain than atoms on the ends, causing the
material to fracture along the middle of the sample. The fracture will travel across grain
boundaries, which result in These are the characteristic "dimples" of a tensile test due to uniaxial
loading.
The SEM is unique from most optical microscopes in the respect that it uses the wavelengths of
electrons to capture images. With ordinary optical microscopes, we are limited to the wavelength
of light, which falls in the range of several hundred nanometers. For higher levels of
magnification the optical microscope becomes impossible. However, because their wavelengths
are significantly smaller than those of light, electrons are able to penetrate deeper levels into the
material and produce crisper images. This can be done by simply varying the accelerating
voltage of the electrons produced by the cathode. For most images, we use a setting of 20keV.
The following schematic diagrams summarizes the structure of the SEM:

Once incident on the material, the electrons are directed towards a detector via an electric field.
Because protrusive surfaces tend to provide the best path of travel for these electrons, these
regions tend to appear brighter than flat surfaces. Computer software uses the readings from the
detectors to construct an image of the material's microstructure.
This explains the black and white color scheme of the images taken from the lab. Brighter
regions are indicative of sites that are rough while darker surfaces tend to be an indication of
flatness. Because of this, the images from the fatigue test appear darker than the images captured
from the tensile test.
While not a particular error, a possible explanation for deviation from the expected images of the
tensile and fatigue tests may be contributed to the non uniform nature of fracture. This is less of a
concern for the fatigue test since it is known to fracture in as very smooth fashion, but for the test
specimen that was subjected to a tensile test, the position of the captured image may vary
drastically from site to site.