| DEVELOPMENT DRAFT The only stable URL is http://www.vendian.org/howbig/. Comments encouraged - mncharity@vendian.org (Mitchell Charity) |
How Big Are Things?
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small | Real world |
big | solar system | between | galaxy | ||||||||||||||||||||
| nano |
micro |
meter |
kilo |
Mega |
Giga |
Tera |
Peta |
Exa |
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| micrometer's Room - looking at the entire room |
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look at a sheet of graph paper |
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| galaxy | 21 | |
| 20 19 | ||
| local stars | 18 | |
| 17 16 | ||
| between | 15 | |
| 14 13 | ||
| E's orbit | 12 | |
| 11 10 | ||
| sun | 9 | |
| 8 7 | ||
| texas | 6 | |
| 5 4 | ||
| hood | 3 | |
| 2 1 | ||
| you | 0 | |
| -1 -2 | ||
| salt grain | -3 | |
| -4 -5 | ||
| bacteria | -6 | |
| -7 -8 | ||
| atom | -9 |
hair ~100 um dia |
![]() original | grain of salt ~1000 um |
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| a sheet of paper | |||||||||||||||||
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| light-picoseconds ( 10-12 lt·s ) | |||||
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| typesetting's points (pt) (1/72 inch) | ||||
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1200 dpi
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600 dpi
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300 dpi




100 dpi
![]() your screen(If you sputter tiny drops of water on your screen (spit works), you can see them.) | ![]() | /tr>
The letter "a", and a period, in a 12-point font.
You can make your own big letter "a" poster.

a 20 uL drop (on a hydrophobic surface, like tile, or glass, or ...)

source
The eye of a needle.
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| pin diameters | pin source, img |
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These are adult fleas. They feed on blood (see the fangs). Of big animals
(mice, rats, cats, dogs, humans, etc).
They have narrow bodies for running through hair forests.
They can jump high - 100 mm (in this room, that's a thirty story building),
surviving 200 G's on takeoff (ie, they leap tall buildings in a single bound:). Vampire bear? Elephant?
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![]() | ![]() q-tip src |
alveoli
balloon-like
smallest raindrops src

typical raindrop src
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