Many have likely heard of it beforeits frequently associated withnanotechnologyand the creation or study of very tiny things.
A nanometer is obviously smaller than a meter, but you may be wondering just how small?
Or, what kinds of professions or real-world products work on this nanoscopic scale?
Or, how it relates to other metric measurements of length?
How Small is a Nanometer?
Metric measurements are all based on the meter.
With a mechanical pencil and steady hand, its not hard to draw lines one millimeter apart.
Now imagine trying to fitone millionparallel lines within thespace of a millimeterthats a nanometer.
Making those lines would definitely require specialized equipment since:
Without the assistance of any tools (e.g.
magnifying glasses, microscopes), a normal human eye (i.e.
Or sift some fine sand in the palm of your hand to find the smallest, barely-perceptible grains.
And all that is just the micrometer level nanometer-sized objects are a thousand times smaller!
Viruses range from 50 and 200 nanometers in size.
The average thickness of a cell membrane is between 6 nanometers and 10 nanometers.
Given those examples, its easy to understand that it requires high-powered and precise equipment (e.g.
scanning tunneling microscopes) to interact with (i.e.
image, measure, model, manipulate, and manufacture) objects on the nanoscopic scale.
Some medicines that small are designed to be capable of delivering drugs to specific cells.
Modern synthetic chemicals are manufactured by a process that creates molecules with nanometer precision.
Carbon nanotubes are used to improve thermal and electrical properties of products.
And theSamsung Galaxy S8smartphone andApple iPad Pro tablet (second-gen)both featureprocessorsdesigned at 10 nm.
The future has more in store for nanometer-sized scientific and technological applications.
However, the nanometer isnt even the smallest measurement around!
Check the table below to see how it compares.
The Metric Table
FAQ
No.
A nanometer is 1,000 times smaller than a micrometer.
In other words, one micrometer (m) is 1,000 nanometers.
A centimeter (cm) is 10,000 nanometers.
Therefore, a nanometer is 10,000 times smaller than a centimeter.
A nanometer is 1,000,000 times smaller than a millimeter.
One millimeter (mm) is one million nanometers.
