• Question: How small is an Atoms actually?

    Asked by MarriedAnElephant420 to Sheila, Dimitar on 11 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Dimitar Shterionov

      Dimitar Shterionov answered on 11 Nov 2018:

      The atom is really really really small. Let’s take the hydrogen atom it’s radius is 78 pm which is 0.156nm which is 0.000000156mm (I hope I didn’t miss some zeros đŸ˜› ). Which is actually very very small – just check your ruler how big a mm is and than imagine something like 10 million times smaller.

      OK, let’s imagine it the other way round. Let’s say that a grapefruit is composed of hydrogen atoms (not that it actually is, but just for the sake of this example). Now let’s we have machine to enlarge these atoms to the size of a blueberry then the grapefruit will expand to the size of … the Earth.

      I hope this gives you an idea how small the atom actually is đŸ™‚

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