How Big is a Nanometer?

IBM chip UMass Logo TI mirror array

Adapted from Nanosense

• This activity– http://nanosense.org/activities/sizematters/sizeandsca

le/SM_Lesson2Teacher.pdf

• On our website – www.umassk12.net/nano/Saturday

• Other useful nanoscience materials– http://nanosense.org/index.html

• Other nanotechnology and power of ten resources:– http://www.umassk12.net/nano/resources.htm

The Nano Scale

Nano materials are typically 1 to 100 nanometers in size

1 nanometer = 1/1,000,000,000 meters

How do such materials fit into the overall scale of objects in nature?

And how big is a nanometer in terms of something basic?

We’ll use powers of ten

• Handy way to express very large or very small numbers.

• Easier than writing lots of zeros!

106 • reads 'ten to the 6' • is 1 followed by 6 zeros, 1,000,000 • is 1.0 with the point moved right by 6 places

Negative powers of 10

10-6

• reads 'ten to the minus 6'

• is 1 divided by 106 , 1/1,000,000

• is 1.0 with the point moved left by six places, 0.000,001

How big is a meter?

~ 1 meter

~2 metersWidth?

Height?

101 meters = 10 meters

Adapted from http://microcosm.web.cern.ch/Microcosm/P10/english/welcome.html

100 meter = 1 meter

10-1 meters = 0.1 meters

fly

10-2 meters = 0.01m

1 centimeter = 1 cm

10-3 meters = 0.001 meters

Fly’s eye

1 millimeter = 1 mm

10-4 meters = 0.0001 meters

Fly’s eye as seen with electron microscope

10-5 meters = 0.00001 meters

Red blood cells

10-6 meters = 0.000,001 meters

Bacteria

10-7 meters = 0.000,000,1 meters

Computer Chip details

10-7 meters

10-8 meters = 0.000,000,01 meters

“Quantum corral” of iron atoms on a copper surface

10-9 meters = 0.000,000,001 meters(1 nanometer = 1 nm)

DNA

3 nanometers

10-10 meters = 0.000,000,000,1 meters

Carbon atom, with 6 electrons and a nucleus

10-14 meters = 0.000,000,000,000,01 meters

Carbon nucleus,

made up of 6 protons and 6 neutrons

10-15 meters = 0.000,000,000,000,001 meters

Proton (or neutron) composed of 3 quarks

1 femtometer = 1 fm

So how big is a nanometer?

Carbon atom diameter ~ 10-10 m

10 x 10-10 m = 10-9 m

1 nanometer ~ 10 atoms wide

Nano wires and tubes are 1-100 x 10 atoms in diameter

Nano films are a 1-100 x 10 atoms in thickness

Nano particles are 1 to 100 x 10 atoms in diameter

The Size Me Challenge

• Each team has an envelope containing– A 3 page list of powers of ten– 24 picture cards

• Place each card next to the appropriate power of ten– Size matches will be approximate – Some matches will be easy, some will be

hard!

That’s all for now