Comment

Comment by Laszlo Robert Zsiros on June 6, 2008 at 8:47am

This video was made for the general public (probably kids) not for science people. The idea was to give the impression of the size of a nanometer. Therefore, I think we shouldn't stick to the strict scientific definitions.

I found number one the best because it used objects that are familiar to everyone. Number two is also okay but I guess it says much more to those who actually have been to that specific museum (it's a very important point with kids!). My problem with number three is that the Earth is humongous; "feeling" the size of it is also very difficult for us.

Comment by Philip Lippel on January 14, 2008 at 11:45pm

The third is the best, but none are very good.
The first is cute, but way too vague-- just how big a "car" would it take to fit 6 x 10^9 "people", if they were each 10 ^-9 m tall? (and presumably about the same height and width? I leave the exercise to he reader, but the vehicle will be a lot smaller than the toy car shown.

The second has lots of mistakes (everything is made of atoms, but not everything is made of molecules....) and makes repeated use of size analogies that most people can't comprehend in a meaningful way.