Some objects and beings (such as microbes, bacteria, atoms...) are so small that we need to expand our metric scale (Km, Hm, Dam, m, dm, cm, mm) in order to be able to talk about their size, weight, etc... Thus, we define micrometers (10-6 m), nanometers(10-9 m), Angstroms(10-10 m), and picometers (10-12 m).
Visit the following link to check out the relative size of several micro-organisms and then answer the following questions:
Questions
- How many times bigger is a red blood cell than an influenza virus?
- How many skin cells are in one square centimeter?
- Write the size of a molecule of water in milimeters (use scientific notation for your result).
- We know that in 12 grams of carbon there are 6.023 · 1023. How much does each carbon atom weigh? What is the density of a carbon atom? (consider the atom to be spherical)
