Contents

Order of magnitude - length

• 10^-35 m - Lengths smaller than this do not make any physical sense. See Planck length
• 10^-15 m - Size of atomic nucleus
• 10^-10 m - Size of atoms - See Ångström
• 10^-9 m = 1 nanometer (nm) - Diameter of DNA helix
• 10^-8 m = 10 nm
  • 20 nm -- thickness of bacterial flagellum[?]
  • 90 nm -- Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
• 10^-7 m = 100 nm
  • 100 nm -- Maximum particle size that can fit through a surgical mask[?]
• 10^-6 m = 1 micrometer aka micron (μm)
  • diameter of typical bacterium
  • 6 μm -- anthrax spore
  • 7 μm -- strand of spider web[?]
• 10^-5 m = 10 μm
  • 10 μm -- Width of cotton fibre
  • 80 μm -- width of human hair
• 10^-4 m = 100 μm
  • 125 μm -- Dust mite
• 10^-3 m = 1 millimeter (mm)
  • 2.54 mm -- distance between pins in old DIP[?] (dual-in-pair) electronic components
• 10^-2 m = 1 centimeter (cm)
  • 1.5 cm -- length of an average mosquito.
  • 2.54 cm -- 1 inch
• 10^-1 m = 10 cm
  • 30 cm -- 1 foot
  • 91 cm -- 1 yard
• 1 m
  • 1.7 m -- average person's height(?)
• 10 m
  • 20 m -- Length of a cricket pitch
  • 52 m -- Height of Niagara Falls
• 100 m
  • 448 m -- Height of the Empire State building
• 1,000 m = 1 kilometer (km)
  • 1600 m = 1 mile
  • 8850 m -- Height of Mount Everest
• 10,000 m = 10 km
  • 11,518 m -- Mindanao deep[?]
  • 35 km -- Width of the English Channel
• 100,000 m = 100 km
• 10⁶ m = 1,000 km
  • 6,400 km -- The length of the Great Wall of China
• 10⁷ m = 10,000 km
  • 12,756 km = Diameter of the earth
• 10⁸ m = 100,000 km
  • 384,000 km -- Moon's orbital distance from Earth
• 10⁹ m
  • 1,390,000 km -- Diameter of Sun
• 10¹¹ m
  • 149,597,870,691 m -- Mean distance between Earth and Sun. Definition: Astronomical unit
• 10¹² m
  • 1,429,400,000 km -- Orbital distance of Saturn from Sun
  • 5,913,520,000 km -- Orbital distance of Pluto from Sun
• 10¹⁵ m
  • 9.5 x 10¹⁵m -- 1 light year; Distance travelled by light in one year
  • 4 x 10¹⁶m -- Distance to nearest star (Proxima Centauri)
• 10²¹ m
  • 1.4 x 10²¹ m -- The Milky Way Galaxy size(?)
  • 2.1 x 10²² m -- Distance to Andromeda Galaxy
• 10 ²⁶ m
  • 10 billion light years -- Estimated distance to Quasars - the farthest observed objects in the Universe