How small are atoms? Not accurate! Not accurate! Not drawn to scale! Not drawn to scale!
The scale of small things Red blood cells are small, right?
The scale of small things Magnify one ‘til it’s the size of… … the Earth In the picture of the Earth, can you see a city? A building? Why not?
The scale of small things An atom would then be the size of… Back to the blood cell: If we could magnify it that much,
The scale of small things An atom would then be the size of… … SAFECO Field!
The scale of small things The nucleus would be the size of… … the pitcher’s mound? No. … the baseball? … a stitch on a baseball? Yes.
The scale of small things So you wouldn’t be able to see the nucleus in this picture! (Electrons are even smaller.)
Inside the nucleus Inside the nucleus there are smaller objects called quarks and gluons. They are never seen on their own.