The Scale of Small.

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." - Mother Teresa

Even though this isn't what Mother Teresa was talking about, it still applies here. If it wasn't for your body cells, DNA, nuclei - you wouldn't be here, you couldn't function and you wouldn't exist.

You think a penny is small, or a pin head. When compared to some other things they are giant. Size is relative. A coin can be small but also large, like everything; Earth, The Sun, VY Canis Majoris and even an atom. 

Just think, you think something like a strand of hair is small, when relative to other things - it is absolutely huge. Like giant. 

Imagine an inch, how wide it is. Now imagine your hair, the inch seems pretty big right? You hair is a measly 17 to 180 micrometers, that is 0.00067 to 0.0071 inches (according to Wikipedia). You will now be in the frame of mind that your hair is small right? Well relative to others things it is:

Gigantic.

The next thing on my list to go down the scale of small is our DNA. You cant comprehend to the size of DNA, it is too small for us to comprehend, and to visualise. DNA molecules have a consistant width of about 2.5 nanometers, which is one BILLIONTH of a meter. That is seriously small. Too small for us in fact.

Now, to make DNA look big. An atom is around 0.1 nanometer, or 100 picometers. This is 1 billionth, to on trillionth of a meter. This is so small, we can barely visualise it through our most powerful microscopes- electron microscopes.

Now to get even smaller, an electron. The radius of an electron is 3x10^-15 meters. 3 femtometers. 

Now the smallest, a Planck legnth. The smallest size physically possible according to some physicists. The size of it is 1.6x10^-35. That is: 0.000000000000000000000000000000000016 metres. Space and time cease to be valid near this length.

To conclude, think about your clothes, what you are wearing. How close are they to your skin? An atom could fit in there; a proton, neutron and electron. Many Planck lengths could too. When you next think of something that is small, think about it, are they really small? Or huge compared to others? Can we even compare the size of things, if it is all relative? What is the smallest thing you can comprehend?

Thanks for reading, Ben.