Wiki Leonardo da Vinci
Size of the Universe
In this model, the sun is a very tiny speck of dust indeed—a speck less than a three-thousandth of an inch in diameter … Think of the sun as something less than a speck of dust in a vast city, of the earth as less than a millionth part of such a speck of dust, and we have perhaps as vivid a picture as the mind can really grasp of the relation of our home in space to the rest of the universe. —
Sir James Jeans In The Universe Around Us (1953), 96.
Relative Size of Things
| structure | size of structure |
| coffee bean | 12 X 8mm |
| grain of rice | 8 X 2.5mm |
| sesame seed | 3 X 2mm |
| grain of salt | .5mm |
| ameba | 500 microns |
| paramecium | 210X60 microns |
| human ovum | 130 microns |
|
photoreceptor |
100 X 2.5 microns |
|
sperm |
60 X 5 microns |
|
skin cell |
30 microns |
|
red cell |
8 microns |
|
X chromosome |
7 microns |
|
baker’s yeast |
3 X 4 microns |
| E Coli bacterium | 3 X .6 microns |
| mitochondrion | 4 X .8 microns |
|
lysosyme |
.1 micron |
|
measles virus |
220 nanometers |
| influenza virus | 130 nm |
| hiv virus | 130 nm |
| coated vesicle | 90 nm |
|
hepatitis virus |
45nm |
| rhinovirus | 30nm |
|
ribosome |
30nm |
| ribosome | 30nm |
|
antibody |
12 nm |
|
tRNA |
7nm |
| phospholipid | .9 X 3.4nm |
|
methionine |
1100 X 700pm |
|
adenine |
1300 X 760pm |
|
glucose |
900pm |
| water molecule | 275pm |
| carbon atom | 340pm |
References
Carl Sagan http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=t4Tst9DZFPI