The Size of An Atom
Classical Mechanics
Level
3
Consider this scaling problem:
A single hydrogen atom at ground state is \(1.058\) Å large. This is also represented as \(105.8\) picometers or \(1.05835442134×10^{-10} \) meters.
It's easy to visualize the number 105.8 or even 106. Much harder to picture \(1.05835442134×10^{-10} \). If you blew up a hydrogen atom to the size of a \(12.17\text{ cm}\) (or \(0.1217\) m) wide grapefruit (an average grapefruit size), and a real grapefruit grew proportionally, approximately how big would the real grapefruit grow to be?
by
Christopher Williams