Tiny Numbers in Science
Even smaller numbers are often found in science, which are so small that they are not easily dealt with using fractions. Scientific notation was created to handle very small and very large numbers.
Examples of small numbers describing everyday real-world objects are:
- size of a bit on a computer hard disk
- feature size of a structure on a microprocessor chip
- wavelength of green light: 5.5 × 10-7 m
- period of a 100 MHz FM radio wave: 1 × 10-8 s
- time taken by light to travel one meter: roughly 3 × 10-9 s
- radius of a hydrogen atom: 2.5 × 10-11 m
- the charge on an electron: roughly 1.6 × 10-19 C (negative)
Other small numbers are found in particle physics and quantum physics:
- size of the atomic nucleus of a lead atom: 7.1 × 10-15 m
- the Planck length: 1.6 × 10-35 m
Read more about this topic: Small Number
Famous quotes containing the words tiny, numbers and/or science:
“When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came to man’s estate
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
‘Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came, alas! to wive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain it raineth every day.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Old age equalizes—we are aware that what is happening to us has happened to untold numbers from the beginning of time. When we are young we act as if we were the first young people in the world.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“But don’t despise error. When touched by genius, when led by chance, the most superior truth can come into being from even the most foolish error. The important inventions which have been brought about in every realm of science from false hypotheses number in the hundreds, indeed in the thousands.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)