Charts, Graphs, & Diagrams > Miscellaneous > Visual Scale of Sizes
Visual Scale of Sizes, from Subatomic to Intergalactic
An unique display of every size known to science.
- Description and comments
- Short Version
- Inspired by: Paul Falstad's A Sense of Scale
Bottom of long version/top of short version
one fermi 1x10-15 |  1x10-15 diameter of proton (in the nucleus) |
| 2.2x10-15 classical diameter of neutron | |
| 3.8x10-15 diameter of the nucleus of a helium atom | |
| 5.635882x10-15 classical diameter of an electron | |
| 7.2x10-15 diameter of the nucleus of an aluminum atom | |
| 1.4x10-14 diameter of the nucleus of a gold atom | |
| one picometer 1x10-12 | |
| 3.8x10-11 diameter of fluorine ion | |
| 5.29x10-11 distance from electron to nucleus in a hydrogen atom | |
| 7.413x10-11 distance between bonded hydrogen atoms | |
| one angstrom 1x10-10 | |
| 1.2x10-10 Van Der Waals radius of hydrogen atoms | |
| 2x10-10 resolution of a transmission electron microscope | |
| 3x10-10 diameter of water molecule | |
| 5.309x10-10 distance between bonded cesium atoms | |
| one nanometer 1x10-9 | |
| 2x10-9 diameter of DNA helix | |
| 6x10-9 diameter of a hemoglobin molecule | |
| 1x10-8 thickness of cell wall (gram negative bacteria) | |
| 7.5x10-8 size of typical virus | |
| 9x10-8 length of transistor gate in a Pentium 4 chip | |
| 1.25x10-7 thickness of gold leaf | |
| 2x10-7 resolution of an optical microscope | |
| 2.6x10-7 length of the smallest transistor in a Pentium 3 chip | |
| 4.1x10-7 wavelength of violet light | |
| 6.8x10-7 wavelength of red light | |
| one micrometer (micron) 1x10-6 | 1x10-6 size of typical bacterium |
| 1.7x10-6 diameter of average human cell nucleus | |
| 2.4x10-6 thickness of red blood cell | |
| 3x10-6 length of transistor gate in an Intel 8086 chip | |
| 4x10-6 diameter of capillary | |
| 7x10-6 diameter of a single yeast organism | |
| 8.4x10-6 diameter of red blood cell | |
| 1x10-5 size of a grain of talcum powder | |
| 1.6x10-5 length of the smallest transistor in the first 6502 chips | |
| 2x10-5 length of the smallest transistor in an Intel 4004 | |
| 2.5x10-5 diameter of a human hair | |
| 8.382x10-5 typical thickness of a piece of paper | |
| 1x10-4 minimum size of object the human eye can resolve unaided | |
| 3x10-4 diameter of a period on a typewriter | |
| 3.7x10-4 diameter of the most common type of optical fiber | |
| 7.5x10-4 size of largest known bacterium | |
| one millimeter 1x10-3 | |
| 1.7x10-3 diameter of the head of the average pin | |
| 2x10-3 diameter of a large grain of sand | |
| 4.234x10-3 height of a line of text in 12-point type | |
| one centimeter 1x10-2 | |
| 1.7x10-2 wavelength of 20khz note (highest that can be heard) | |
| one inch 2.54x10-2 | |
| 8.5x10-2 length of largest human chromosome if stretched end-to-end | |
| 1.22x10-1 wavelength of microwaves in a microwave oven | |
| one foot 3.0x10-1 | |
 7.9x10-1 wavelength of 440 hertz note (A above middle C) | |
| one meter 1x100 | |
| 1.62x100Average female height | |
| 1.75x100Average male height | |
| 1.7x101 wavelength of 20 hertz note (lowest that can be heard) | |
| 3x101 average wavelength of FM radio waves | |
| 2.997925x102 distance light travels in one microsecond, in a vacuum | |
| 4.1x102 distance a bullet travels per second, when fired from a .22 | |
| one kilometer 1x103 | |
| one mile 1.61x103 | |
| 4.47x103 greatest measured thickness of antarctic ice cap | |
| 8.85x103 height of Mount Everest | |
| 2.978x104 distance the earth travels per second in its orbit | |
| 6x104 thickness of ozone layer | |
| 8x104 height of ionosphere (ionized region which reflects radio waves) | |
| 100 miles 1.61x105 | |
| 2.997925x105 distance light travels in one millisecond, in a vacuum | |
| 3.54x105 average altitude of International Space Station | |
| 6.4x105 height of lowest point of inner Van Allen belt | |
| 1x106 thickness of earth | |
| 1x106 | 1.414x106 altitude of Globalstar satellites (LEO) |
| 2.274x106 diameter of Pluto at its equator | |
| 3.4748x106 diameter of moon | |
| 4.8794x106 diameter of Mercury at its equator | |
| 6.7944x106 diameter of Mars at its equator | |
| 9.38x106 mean distance from Phobos to Mars | |
| 1.27562x107 diameter of Earth at its equator | |
| 2.02x107 altitude of GPS satellites | |
| 2.346x107 mean distance from Deimos to Mars | |
| 3.58x107 height of satellite in geostationary orbit | |
| 4.9492x107 diameter of Neptune at its equator | |
| 1.2053x108 diameter of Saturn at its equator | |
| 1.4298x108 diameter of Jupiter at its equator | |
| 2.997925x108 distance light travels in one second, in a vacuum | |
| 3.844x108 mean distance from earth to moon | |
| 8.68912x108 max initial altitude of Geotail satellite (VHO) | |
| 1x109 | 1.07x109 mean distance from Jupiter to Ganymede |
| 1.39x109 diameter of sun at its equator | |
| 1.798755x1010 distance light travels in one minute, in a vacuum | |
| 5.791x1010 mean distance of Mercury from the sun | |
| 1.082x1011 mean distance of Venus from the sun | |
| one astronomical unit 1.50x1011 | |
| 2.2794x1011 mean distance of Mars from the sun | |
| 4.139x1011 mean distance of the asteroid Ceres from the sun | |
| 7.7833x1011 mean distance of Jupiter from the sun | |
| 1x1012 | 1.079253x1012 distance light travels in one hour, in a vacuum |
| 1.4294x1012 mean distance of Saturn from the sun | |
| 2.87099x1012 mean distance of Uranus from the sun | |
| 4.5043x1012 mean distance of Neptune from the sun | |
| 5.91352x1012 mean distance of Pluto from the sun | |
| 9.323x1012 current distance of Voyager 2 from sun (as of 10/27/00) | |
| 1.1837x1013 current distance of Voyager 1 from sun (as of 10/27/00) | |
| 2.0x1013 heliopause (outer edge of Sun's magnetic field) | |
| 2.590207x1013 distance light travels in one day, in a vacuum | |
| 5.56x1013 maximum distance of comet Hale-Bopp from the sun | |
| 1.813145x1014 distance light travels in one week, in a vacuum | |
| 1x1015 | |
| 3.7x1015 possible distance of Sol B from Sun | |
| one light year 9.5x1015 | |
| 1.4x1016 possible edge of Oort cloud | |
| one parsec 3.1x1016 | |
| 3.99x1016 distance to Proxima Centauri (nearest star other than sun) | |
| 8.1x1016 distance to the star Sirius | |
| 2.39x1017 distance to the star Vega | |
| 3.2x1017 distance to the star Pollux | |
| 4.9x1017 distance to the star Castor | |
| 7.3x1017 distance to the star Regulus | |
1x1018 | |
| 2x1018 thickness of Milky Way Galaxy | |
| 4.0x1018 distance to the star Polaris | |
| 1.5x1019 distance to Horsehead Nebula | |
| 2.6x1020 distance to center of Milky Way Galaxy | |
| 4.2x1020 diameter of M33 galaxy | |
| 1x1021 | 1x1021 distance to Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy |
| 1.54x1021 diameter of Milky Way Galaxy | |
| 2x1021 distance to Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy | |
| 2.0x1022 distance to Andromeda galaxy | |
| 3x1022 distance to IC 10 galaxy | |
| 4x1022 distance to Pegasus galaxy | |
| 1.0x1023 distance to the M81 galaxy cluster | |
| 1.4x1023 distance to the M83 galaxy | |
| 2.5x1023 distance to the M101 galaxy | |
| 3.5x1023 distance to the M51 galaxy cluster | |
| 5x1023 distance to the Virgo galaxy cluster | |
| 1x1024 | |
| 3.2x1024 distance to the Coma galaxy cluster | |
| 1x1025 distance to brightest quasar (3C 273) | |
| 3x1025 distance to quasar 3C 48 | |
| 2.4x1026 distance to farthest known object (quasar SDSS_1044_0125) |
Top of page Top of long version
| one fermi 1x10-15 | 1x10-15 diameter of proton (in the nucleus) |
| 2.2x10-15 classical diameter of neutron | |
| 3.8x10-15 diameter of the nucleus of a helium atom | |
| 5.635882x10-15 classical diameter of an electron | |
| one picometer 1x10-12 | |
| 5.29x10-11 distance from electron to nucleus in a hydrogen atom | |
| one angstrom 1x10-10 | |
| 3x10-10 diameter of water molecule | |
| one nanometer 1x10-9 | |
| 2x10-9 diameter of DNA helix | |
| 2x10-7 resolution of an optical microscope | |
| 6.8x10-7 wavelength of red light | |
| one micrometer (micron) 1x10-6 | 1x10-6 size of typical bacterium |
| 1.7x10-6 diameter of average human cell nucleus | |
| 2.5x10-5 diameter of a human hair | |
| 1x10-4 minimum size of object the human eye can resolve unaided | |
| one millimeter 1x10-3 | |
| one centimeter 1x10-2 | |
| one foot 3.0x10-1 | |
| 7.9x10-1 wavelength of 440 hertz note (A above middle C) | |
| one meter 1x100 | |
| 1.62x100Average female height | |
| 1.7x101 wavelength of 20 hertz note (lowest that can be heard) | |
| 2.997925x102 distance light travels in one microsecond, in a vacuum | |
| one kilometer 1x103 | |
| one mile 1.61x103 | |
| 2.978x104 distance the earth travels per second in its orbit | |
| 2.997925x105 distance light travels in one millisecond, in a vacuum | |
| 1x106 | 1.414x106 altitude of Globalstar satellites (LEO) |
| 1.27562x107 diameter of Earth at its equator | |
| 3.58x107 height of satellite in geostationary orbit | |
| 3.844x108 mean distance from earth to moon | |
| 1x109 | 1.07x109 mean distance from Jupiter to Ganymede |
| 5.791x1010 mean distance of Mercury from the sun | |
| one astronomical unit 1.50x1011 | |
| 2.2794x1011 mean distance of Mars from the sun | |
| 1x1012 | 1.079253x1012 distance light travels in one hour, in a vacuum |
| 1.4294x1012 mean distance of Saturn from the sun | |
| 1.1837x1013 current distance of Voyager 1 from sun (as of 10/27/00) | |
| 5.56x1013 maximum distance of comet Hale-Bopp from the sun | |
| 1x1015 | |
| one light year 9.5x1015 | |
| 1.4x1016 possible edge of Oort cloud | |
| 3.99x1016 distance to Proxima Centauri (nearest star other than sun) | |
| 1x1018 | |
| 4.0x1018 distance to the star Polaris | |
| 2.6x1020 distance to center of Milky Way Galaxy | |
| 4.2x1020 diameter of M33 galaxy | |
| 1x1021 | 1x1021 distance to Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy |
| 1.54x1021 diameter of Milky Way Galaxy | |
| 2.0x1022 distance to Andromeda galaxy | |
| 5x1023 distance to the Virgo galaxy cluster | |
| 1x1024 | |
| 1x1025 distance to brightest quasar (3C 273) | |
| 2.4x1026 distance to farthest known object (quasar SDSS_1044_0125) |
Description and comments
The scale is logarithmic in meters. Units are on the left, sizes and distances on the right.
The first version of this was created with CSS absolute positioning, but I was unhappy with that and this version is done with tables, which is less precise but much more robust.
The precision of positioning is limited by the spacing of the table cells. In a few cases, I have adjusted the tick marks to indicate a more precise position than is possible for the text.
The short version is necessarily less accurate than the long version.
In any case, use of these charts for either intergalactic navigation or brain surgery is discouraged.
Corrections, comments, questions, or suggestions for new items? Please email me.
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Charts, Graphs, & Diagrams > Miscellaneous > Visual Scale of Sizes
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