Question

Compare the relative sizes of an atom, a virus, a typical cell, a human, and the...

Compare the relative sizes of an atom, a virus, a typical cell, a human, and the earth using the same unit from a biophysics perspective.

Homework Answers

Answer #1

The typical size of an atom is 10-10 m (0.1 nm)

The size of a virus is 100 nm = 10-7 m

The size of a cell is 100 micro meter = 10-4 m

The size of a human is in the range of meters (2-3) meter

The diameter of earth is approximately 13,000 km = 107 m

To scale the sizes, let us consider that the size of an atom is unity (=1)

Then the size of different objects is as shown below.

Object size powers of 10
atom 1 10^0
virus 1000 10^3
cell 1000000 10^6
human 10000000000 10^10
earth 100000000000000000 10^17

Thus, the virus is 1000 times bigger than an atom

The cell is a million times bigger than an atom and so on.

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