How big is an atom?

Answer 1

More like how small is an atom?:) They are like 1 100th of the thickness of a human hair or something crazy small like that.

Answer 2

Really really small. Really. You cannot imagine how small an atom is. At sea level, at 0 degrees celsius, 1 cubic cm (that's as large as a sugar cube) of air contains 45 billion billion molecules. That's at a molecular level, and atoms are smaller still.

A milimeter (a line about - that long) divided into 1000 is a micron. That's how big micro-organisms are. A typical paramecium is 2 microns long. If you wanted to see a paramecium in a drop of water with your naked eye you would have to make the droplet 12 metres across. However - if you wanted to see the atoms in that drop of water it would have to be 24 KILOMETRES across - which is nearly 15 miles.

Different atoms are different sizes. A hydrogen atom has 1 proton and 1 electron, and no neutrons. A helium atom has 2 protons, 2 electrons and 2 neutrons - and so on. This is what the atomic number on the period table is all about. A normal atom of carbon has 6 of everything and so on - this means it's 6 times heavier than hydrogen. Larger atoms (ones with higher numbers on the periodic table) are more unstable because the forces holding them together are being put to the test holding so much in. However, even the largest atoms known to exist are still absolutely miniscule.

Answer 3

How big is an atom? Take a piece of spaghetti and divided it 12 times. That comes out to be 4,096 pieces of spaghetti. If you were to divide each of those pieces 30 more times that would be about the size of an atom. Imagine that! Atoms are all around you. But the only way you can see an atom is by using an electron microscope, and magnifying it 30 million times. Imagine taking the bible an printing it on Gold Leaf. The bible would be no thicker then a standard piece of paper. Gold leaf is a hundred times thicker then an atom. The real size of an atom is 10-8 cm.

Answer 4

One can not really see an atom with an electron microscope...the closest you get to "seeing" an atom is by using the STM which however only models an atom layer using electrical charges...a nice example of the size of an atom is the following: if i gave you one atom of gold for every second that passed since the big bang(the possible beginning of the universe) i would have to give you 0.00014 gramms...which is like 25 cents

Answer 5

The size of an atom is approximately 10^-10m. There isn't much difference between hydrogen and Uranium in terms of atomic size as most of the atom is empty space.

The nucleus is aproximately 10^-15m, but heavier elements do have a much bigger nucleus than the lighter one.

Answer 6

Depends on the element in question. Hydrogen atoms are very small, while uranium atoms are very large.

Crack the chemistry book or physics book.

Answer 7

Invisible to the naked eye. Only seen through an Electron Microscope.

Answer 8

Depends on the element. Hydrogen is pretty small, Uranium is "comparatively" big. Look at http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/atomsiz.html for the sums.

Answer 9

Very,very, very,very small.