1 micrometre

A clickable mosaic of objects
at scales within direct human experience, from the micrometric (10⁻⁶ m, top left) to the multi-kilometric (10⁵ m, bottom right).

Comparison of sizes of semiconductor manufacturing process nodes with some microscopic objects and visible light wavelengths. At this scale, the width of a human hair is about 10 times that of the image.^[1]

To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists some items with lengths between 10⁻⁶ and 10⁻⁵ m (between 1 and 10 micrometres, or µm).

Distances shorter than 1 µm

• ~0.7–300 µm – wavelength of infrared radiation
• 1 µm – the side of square of area 10⁻¹² m²
• 1 µm – edge of cube of volume 10⁻¹⁸ m³ (1 fL)
• 1–10 µm – diameter of a typical bacterium
• 1.55 µm – wavelength of light used in optical fibre
• 3–4 µm – size of a typical yeast cell
• 5 µm – length of a typical human spermatozoon's head ^[2]
• 6 µm – anthrax spore
• 7 µm – diameter of the nucleus of a typical eukaryotic cell
• about 7 μm – diameter of human red blood cells ^[3]
• 3–8 µm – width of strand of spider web silk^[4]
• 8 µm – width of a chloroplast
• 9 µm – thickness of the tape in a 120-minute compact cassette.
• about 10 µm – size of a fog, mist or cloud water droplet

Distances longer than 10 µm

Notes