Order of magnitude – length

10^-35 m - Lengths smaller than this do not make any physical sense. See Planck length
10^-15 m - Size of atomic nucleus
10^-10 m - Size of atoms - See Ångström
10^-9 m = 1 nanometer (nm) - Diameter of DNA helix
10^-8 m = 10 nm
- 20 nm -- thickness of bacterial flagellum
- 90 nm -- Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
10^-7 m = 100 nm
- 100 nm -- Maximum particle size that can fit through a surgical mask
10^-6 m = 1 micrometer aka micron (μm)
- diameter of typical bacterium
- 6 μm -- anthrax spore
- 7 μm -- strand of spider web
10^-5 m = 10 μm
- 10 μm -- Width of cotton fibre
- 80 μm -- width of human hair
10^-4 m = 100 μm
- 125 μm -- Dust mite
10^-3 m = 1 millimeter (mm)
- 2.54 mm -- distance between pins in old DIP (dual-in-pair) electronic components
10^-2 m = 1 centimeter (cm)
- 1.5 cm -- length of an average mosquito.
- 2.54 cm -- 1 inch
10^-1 m = 10 cm
- 30 cm -- 1 foot
- 91 cm -- 1 yard
1 m
- 1.7 m -- average person's height(?)
10 m
- 20 m -- Length of a cricket pitch
- 52 m -- Height of Niagara Falls
100 m
- 448 m -- Height of the Empire State building
1,000 m = 1 kilometer (km)
- 1600 m = 1 mile
- 8850 m -- Height of Mount Everest
10,000 m = 10 km
- 11,518 m -- Mindanao deep
- 35 km -- Width of the English Channel
100,000 m = 100 km
10⁶ m = 1,000 km
- 6,400 km -- The length of the Great Wall of China
10⁷ m = 10,000 km
- 12,756 km = Diameter of the earth
10⁸ m = 100,000 km
- 384,000 km -- Moon's orbital distance from Earth
10⁹ m
- 1,390,000 km -- Diameter of Sun
10¹¹ m
- 149,597,870,691 m -- Mean distance between Earth and Sun. Definition: Astronomical unit
10¹² m
- 1,429,400,000 km -- Orbital distance of Saturn from Sun
- 5,913,520,000 km -- Orbital distance of Pluto from Sun
10¹⁵ m
- 9.5 x 10¹⁵m -- 1 light year; Distance travelled by light in one year
- 4 x 10¹⁶m -- Distance to nearest star (Proxima Centauri)
10²¹ m
- 1.4 x 10²¹ m -- The Milky way Galaxy size(?)
- 2.1 x 10²² m -- Distance to Andromeda Galaxy
10 ²⁶ m
- 10 billion light years -- Estimated distance to Quasars - the farthest observed objects in the Universe