NANOSCALE

Nano (symbol n) in Greek means “dwarf” but

Nano is definitely smaller than a dwarf. It has a
measurement of one billionth of a meter or 10−9

If it is written in decimal form it would be:

0.000000009
Let us define the length of Nano using the
International System of Units (SI) particular to
metric system.
meter
 SI Metric Scale
Prefix Base 10 Decimal
Name Symbol
meter m 10 1
deci d 10−1 0.1
centi c 10−2 0.01
milli mm 10−3 0.001
micro μ 10−6 0.000 001
nano n 10-9 0.000 000 001
pico p 10-12 0.000 000 000 001
femto f 10-15 0.000 000 000 000 001
atto a 10-18 0.000 000 000 000 000 001
zepto z 10-21 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 001
yocto y 10-24 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001
Microscope is an optical instrument used to see
any element in micro meter like animal cell,
eukaryotic bacteria, virus etc.

Nanoscope is also an optical instrument used to

see any particle in nanometer like molecule or
atom

It is rarely used since it doesn’t need a beam of

light instead it needs a particular atom.
IS ATOM THE SMALLEST
PARTICLE?
Atom is the smallest unit of matter but it is not the
smallest particle because atom is composed of
nucleus, electron, proton and neutron while the
proton and neutron are composed of quarks
Imagining the size of a nano
Just how small is “nano? It’s difficult to imagine just how small that
is, so here are some examples:
• A sheet of paper is about 100,000
nanometers thick

• A strand of human DNA is 2.5

nanometers in diameter