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.
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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