Table of Contents

• Prequiz
• 1: Tall (and small) tales
• 2: Metric conversions: step to the right, step to the left
• 3: 3 Worlds: Milli, Micro, Nano
• 4: Focus on the microworld
• 5: Practice measuring in the microworld
• 6: Next stop … the nanoworld
• 7: End of the line… the picoworld
• 8: Summary

End of the line… the Picoworld

Of course there are things smaller than glucose. These include water molecules, carbon dioxide, hydrogen atoms, and chemical bonds. Most of these things are in fact in the picoworld – you guessed it, 1 picometre = 1/1000 nanometres. However, if you want to go there, you’ll have to find a different tour guide.

But, bottom line, don’t expect to find molecules with less than about 20 atoms in the nanoworld.

And really REALLY don’t expect to find the building blocks of atoms -- protons, neutrons, or electrons -- there.

However, I strongly recommend taking a look at the following sites:

• Cells Alive (http://www.cellsalive.com/howbig.htm)
• The Scale of Universe (http://www.htwins.net/scale2/)

They are very nice animations which allow you to zoom in and out on some things in the micro- and nano-worlds, and give you visual examples of the scale and the size of things.