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

 

 

googol             10100    1 w/ 100 zeros possible chess moves              10 duotrigintillion

 

 

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)