Powers of Ten

About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe

 

 

Going up (getting bigger)…

Things get ten times bigger by an increase of a Power of Ten (or also called  an Order of Magnitude) when we multiply by ten. Other ways to think about this are:

  • add a zero to the end of the number (if there is no decimal value)
  • move decimal point to the right
  • add one to the power of an exponent of base 10

 

 

Name              Power Number           Object about this size           Another Name

meter               100       1                      human body                             about yard or 3 feet

decameter        101       10                    house

hectometer      102       100                  sports field, Great Pyramid

kilometer         103       1,000               my neighborhood                     about half mile

                        104       10,000             height of Mt. Everest

                        105       100,000           Bay Area, large city

megameter       106       1,000,000        California, large state              million

                        107       10,000,000      Earth

                        108       1 w/ 8 zeros    Jupiter

gigameter        109       1 w/ 9 zeros    Sun, orbit of the Moon billion

                        1010      1 w/ 10 zeros  4 days of Earth’s orbit

                        1011      1 w/ 11 zeros  Earth’s orbit                            astronomical unit (AU)

terameter         1012      1 w/ 12 zeros  Jupiter’s orbit                          trillion

                        1013      1 w/ 13 zeros  Solar System

                        1014      1 w/ 14 zeros  heliopause

petameter        1015      1 w/ 15 zeros  empty space around Sun          quadrillion

                        1016      1 w/ 16 zeros  Oort Cloud                              light year (LY)

                        1017      1 w/ 17 zeros  Crab Nebula

exameter          1018      1 w/ 18 zeros  globular cluster (M13)            quintillion

                        1019      1 w/ 19 zeros  distance to Orion Nebula

                        1020      1 w/ 20 zeros  Small Magellanic Cloud

zettameter       1021      1 w/ 21 zeros  Milky Way Galaxy                  sextillion

                        1022      1 w/ 22 zeros  distance to Andromeda Galaxy

                        1023      1 w/ 23 zeros  distance to Virgo Cluster

yottameter       1024      1 w/ 24 zeros  local Supercluster                   septillion

                        1025      1 w/ 25 zeros  empty space around supercluster

                        1026      1 w/ 26 zeros  known universe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going down (getting smaller)…

 

deci     smaller by 10 (Decimal)

centi    smaller by 100 (centimeter=1/100m)

milli    smaller by 3 powers (centimeter=1/1000m)

micro   smaller by 6 powers (microscope required)

nano     smaller by 9 powers (Nine)

pico     smaller by 12 powers (Pack a dozen eggs)

femto   smaller by 15 powers (Fifteen)

atto      smaller by 18 powers (Ate-teen, sub-Atomic particles)

zepto    smaller by 21 powers

yocto   smaller by 24 powers (Yolks, again)

 

 

Memorize an object or two for each of the following size scales:

 

1          human body

10        my house

100      sports field, Great Pyramid

^3        my neighborhood (mile)

^4        Mt. Everest

^5        Bay Area (large city)

^6        California (large state), Ceres

^6.5     Moon

 

.1         human hand

.01       human fingertip

^-3       pencil tip, ant (millimeter)

^-4       dust mite, paramecium, human hair

^-5       cloud droplet, human cell

^-6       bacterium, red light wave (micron)

^-7       chromosome, smoke particle

^-8       THICKNESS of flagellum

^-9       THICKNESS of DNA helix

^-10     atom, X-ray wave (angstrom)

^-12     gamma ray wave

^-14     nucleus of atom

^-15     proton

^-18     quark, electron ("point particles")

^-35     Planck length (smallest possible distance)