What is a Nanometer? © 2011 Project Lead The Way, Inc.Science of Technology

Nanotechnology Nanotechnology deals with materials and machines on an incredibly tiny scale, less than one billionth of a meter. How Nanotechnology Works When Things Get Small What’s Nano

Nanotechnology How big is a nanometer? A nanometer is (a billionth) of a meter. The prefix nano is Greek for dwarf. 1cm1mm100μm 10μm 1μm 100nm 10nm 1nm.1Ǻ BIG SMALL μm = micrometer or micron nm = nanometer Ǻ = Angstrom Diameter of human hair Red blood cells Bacterium DNA helix

Nanoscale Examples All dimensions are approximate.

How Big Is a Billion? 1,000,000,000 or 10 9 How many grains of salt are in a salt shaker? How tall would a stack of 1 billion pieces of paper be? How long would it take you to count to 1 billion?

How many grains of salt are in: 1 pinch 1 cup 1 gallon (16 cups in a gallon) How many cups of salt are needed for 1 billion grains? How Big Is a Billion? ~1,000 grains ~1,000,000 grains ~16,000,000 grains ~100 cups

How big is the container that holds 100 cups or 1 billion grains of salt? How Big Is a Billion? The size of your bathtub!

How tall is 1 billion sheets of paper? Measure the height of 25 sheets of paper to the nearest mm. Therefore, the height of 100 sheets of paper is? So, the height of 1,000,000,000 sheets of paper is? How Big Is a Billion?

One story of a building is approximately 3 m high. How many stories would a billion sheets of paper be? How Big Is a Billion?

How long would it take you to count to 1 billion? Have someone time you while you count from 1-10 at a normal speaking rate. How many seconds would it take you to count from 1-100? How many seconds would it take you to count from 1-1,000? How Big Is a Billion?

How many seconds would it take you to count from 1-1,000,000,000? How many minutes would it take you to count from 1-1,000,000,000? How many years would it take you to count from 1-1,000,000,000? How Big Is a Billion?

How Small Is a Billionth? Which number is larger, 1 billion or 1 million? Which quantity is bigger, one part per million or one part per billion? Would you prefer to have a concentration of toxic substance in your drinking water at one part per billion or one part per million?

What does it mean when you say that you have one in ten chances of winning a game? How Small Is a Billionth?

This is a 10% solution of water and food coloring. How was it made?

How Small Is a Billionth? What is a nanometer? Molecular GearsMolecular Propeller

Nanometer A unit of measure One billionth of a meter, So small that you need a scanning probe microscope or an atomic force microscope to see an object this size

Image Resources Microsoft, Inc. (2009). Clip Art. Retrieved January 30, 2009, from National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). (n.d.). Big things from a tiny world. Retrieved February 3, 2009, from