Small Stuff
By: Gavin Stewart
How Small is the Smallest Thing
As we all know things can be pretty small. Like an ant, whose barley large enough to to see when we’re standing up. Some things can make us feel small, like a football stadium, or learning how large the universe is. But how small is the smallest thing?
Atoms
Atoms are the building blocks of our galaxy. They make up literally everything. But how small really is an atom? Well, an atom is a million times smaller than the thickest human hair. Or, to be exact it is .1 of a nanometer, where a nanometer is .0000000393701 of an inch. But, what’s smaller than an atom? Well, you’re about to find out.
Neutrons
A neutron is one of the many things that make up an atom. A neutron is equal to 1/1,000,000,000,000,000 of a meter. But to make up an atom, you need to put these neutrons and other things together. But what puts them together? Gluons do. They glue all things in an atom together.
Protons
Protons can also fit inside atoms. They are glued to the neutrons by gluons. A proton is about .00000000000000111 of a meter. Gluing the protons and the neutrons together create the nucleus. The nucleus is the base of an atom.
Electrons
An electron is equal to .00000000000000282 of a meter, making it slightly larger than a proton. Electrons make up some of the exterior of an atom. Together, neutrons, gluons, protons and electrons make up an atom. But with all that extra space, what else can fit in? Your answer is light.
Light
Does light have a size? Not exactly. But, living in the third dimension it has to have some sort of measurement. You can measure light by it’s area. The average area of light is about .1 of a µm. Where a µm is equal to about 1/50,800 of an inch.
Conclusion
I hope you learned some cool things about atoms and other small things like them. I’m saying this because people seem to always ask this question, but the reason I chose this was when I was at the Indy Eleven game, I was right by one of the big screens. I couldn’t help but look at them and think about how small I was compared to it. Then, I thought how small my cell was compared to me. And after that how small an atom was compared to my cell, and so on. And, we were almost due on our inquiry projects and I still had nothing to work off of, it seemed like the perfect idea. And plus, I thought it would seem pretty Ironic that Incent was doing a project on the universe and how small we were compared to it, while I was doing how small atoms are compared to us.