If a basketball was the size of the earth and we lived on it, how big would atoms appear to us?

Question

Pretend its made of pure carbon.

And ALSO pretend that the atoms grow proportionally.

That the whole point of me asking the question in the first place.

Answer 1

Size of the atoms will remain the same because big basketball means more number of atoms. It is not that the atoms are magnified.

Answer 2

It is all relative. How do you know that the Earth is not the size of a basketball? In the grand scheme of things the Earth could be the size of an atom. If the Earth is the size of a basketball then we would be smaller too thus the atoms would be smaller. Even if we stayed the same height you still couldn't see atoms with out the aid of a microscope they are that small. In order to see atoms without the aid of a microscope you would have to shrink yourself and not anything else to the size of a molecule. Then you might be able to. If this doesn't defy the law of physics though. I hope this helps.

Answer 3

ANSWER:
0.383 inches in diameter
or about 6/16 of an inch in diameter

SOLUTION:

1) EARTH

Mean circumference of Earth
40,041.47 km

Divide that by Pi (3.14) to find the diameter
12752.06 km

2) BASKETBALL

The Men's size 7 regulation basketball has a diameter of 9.39 inches.
Convert inches to kilometers
1 inches = 2.54 × 10-5 kilometers

9.39 inches x 2.54 × 10-5 kilometers = 2.38506 x 10-4

3) CARBON ATOM

0.182 nanometers
Convert to kilometers

1 nanometers = 1.0 × 10-12 kilometers

0.182 nanometers x 1.0 × 10-12 kilometers = 1.82 x 10-13 km

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Now we have all the information needed to make deductions of proportions if we want to find the size of a Carbon atom in a realm where a regulation size basketball is the size of the earth.

A. Divide diameter of the Earth by the diameter of a basketball then multiply times the diameter of a Carbon Atom.

12752.06 km / 2.38506 x 10-4 km x 1.82 x 10-13 km = 9.73 x 10-6 km

To put this into inches

1 kilometers = 39,370.0787 inches

Thus,
9.73 x 10-6 km x 39,370.0787 inches = 0.383 inches or about 6/16 of an inch.

Kudos to the answer above citing the answer as about 1/3 of an inch which extremely close to these numbers.

Answer 4

I have never heard the analogy used with a basketball. Although, I would still think they would be "invisible" to the naked eye. One analogy I have heard is that if you take an atom itself and enlarge it to the size of your average [American] football stadium, the entire nucleus would be the size of a pea in the center of the 50 yard line and the electrons would be almost the size of dust motes swirling about in the farthest back rows of seats. So, an atom and its constituent parts, meaning the protons, electrons and [if there are any] neutrons, are all very very small.

Answer 5

A basketball is 10 inches, or 50 million times smaller than Earth. So if you were 50 million times smaller, atoms would appear 50 million times bigger. A carbon atom is about 0.182 nanometers wide and 50 million times that is about one centimeter or a third of an inch.

Answer 6

Atomic diameter is about 7E-11 meters for carbon (2.5E-11 for Hydrogen, 17.5E-11 for uranium). Standard basketball is 28.5 to 29 inches circumference, i.e. diameter 9.2 inches. Earth is about 8'000 miles across, that's 503.9 million inches. If you use the full numbers that gives you a ratio of 54.592 million times larger. Apply this to the atomic diameter for Carbon, this gives you 3.8 millimeters or 0.15 inches across. So you'd definitely be able to see them.

Answer 7

About the size of a 500 pound pumpkin