Jump to content

Help locating microscopic visual tools.

Featured Replies

Is there a size comparison of a photon, an atom, and a virus in a book or somewhere online?

  • Author

This visual display is the kind of thing I'm referring to. (it's pretty insane, eleven miles of webpage to show the distance between a proton and its electron -- although my visual needs are a bit more practical)

Photons have no size (although you can use wavelength, inwhich case take your pic).

 

As for the comparison to an atom to a virus, a virus can be 10 to 300nm (about that), whereas the smallest atom is 25pm, which is pretty much 3 orders of magnitude smaller (1000 times). The largest currently studied atom is around 150pm...

 

Just find things which have the same kind of order difference... Like a full stop and a lorry tire...

  • Author
Photons have no size (although you can use wavelength, inwhich case take your pic).

 

As for the comparison to an atom to a virus, a virus can be 10 to 300nm (about that), whereas the smallest atom is 25pm, which is pretty much 3 orders of magnitude smaller (1000 times). The largest currently studied atom is around 150pm...

 

Just find things which have the same kind of order difference... Like a full stop and a lorry tire...

I take it pm is parts per million and nm is nanometers? If so, how many pm would equal 1 nm?

pm is picometer, or [math]10^{-12}[/math] meter.

 

nm is nanometer, of [math]10^{-9}[/math] meter.

 

parts per million is abbreviated as "ppm". It means 1/1000000, just like percent (%) means 1/100 and per mille (‰) is 1/1000.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.