Annex: Order of magnitude
Intuitively, the order of magnitude of a number is the number of zeros before or after the decimal point; thus, a range of eight orders of magnitude implies one hundred million. It is the class of scale or magnitude of any quantity, in which each class contains values in a fixed proportion with respect to the previous class. The most commonly used ratio is 10. For example, two numbers are said to differ by 3 orders of magnitude if one is 1000 times larger than the other. The most widespread use of describing orders of magnitude is through scientific notation and powers of ten.
One way to classify objects in the physical world is by their size. The pages mentioned below contain lists of objects that are of the same order of magnitude in time, length, area, volume, mass, or energy. Their usefulness is that they allow us to intuitively grasp the relative size of things and the scale of the universe. Base units of the SI (International System of Units) and SI prefixes are used: these have been designed with orders of magnitude in mind. On each individual page, in turn, other units are mentioned; see also unit conversion.
In the table below, the different quantities have been arranged so that they lie on the same line: distance and time it takes light to cover that distance, area and side of a square, volume of a cube, and area of a face, mass of water and its volume. See also the separate tables for length, area, volume, mass, time, energy, and dimensionless numbers.
Time | Length
km → hm → dam → m → dm → cm → mm | Area | Volume | Masa | Energy | Temperature |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(second) | (meter) | (square diameter) | (cubic) | (kilogram) | (July) | (kelvin) |
10-44 s | 10-35 m | |||||
... | ||||||
10-28 s | 100 zm | |||||
10-27 s | 1 am | 1 nK | ||||
10-26 s | 10 am | 1 peV | 1 μK | |||
10-25 s | 100 am | 1 mK | ||||
10-24 s | 1 fm | 0.001 meV 0.01 meV | 1 K | |||
10-23 s | 10 fm | 1 meV 10 meV | 10 K 100 K | |||
10-22 s | 100 fm | 10-28 m2 | 1 eV 10 eV | 10,000 K 100,000 K | ||
10-21 s | 1 pm | 10-33 kg 10-32 kg | 1000 eV 104 eV | 109 K | ||
10-20 s | 10pm | 10-30 kg 10-29 kg | 1 MeV 10 MeV | 109 K | ||
10-20 s | 10pm | 10-30 kg 10-29 kg | 1 MeV 10 MeV | 1012 K | ||
10-19 s | 100 pm | 10-20 m2 10-19 m2 | 10-27 kg 10-26 kg | 1 GeV 10 GeV | 1015 K | |
10-18 s | 1 nm | 10-18 m2 10-17 m2 | 10-24 kg 10-23 kg | 1 TeV 10 TeV | 1018 K | |
10-17 s | 10 nm | 10-16 m2 10-15 m2 | 10-21 kg 10-20 kg | 0.0001 J 0.001 J | 1021 K | |
10-16 s | 100 nm | 10-14 m2 10-13 m2 | 10-21 m3 10-20 m3 | 10-18 kg 10-17 kg | 0.1 J 1 J | 1024 K |
1 f | 1 μm | 10-12 m2 10-11 m2 | 10-18 m3 10-17 m3 | 10-15 kg 10-14 kg | 100 J 1000 J | 1027 K |
10 fs | 10 μm | 10-10 m2 10-9 m2 | 10-15 m3 10-14 m3 | 10-12 kg 10-11 kg | 100000 J 0.001 kWh | 1030 K |
100 fs | 100 μm | 10-8 m2 10-7 m2 | 10-12 m3 10-11 m3 | 10-9 kg 10-8 kg | 0.1 kWh 1 kWh | |
1 p | 1 mm | 10-6 m2 10-5 m2 | 10-9 m3 10-8 m3 | 10-6 kg 10-5 kg | 100 kWh 1000 kWh | |
10 ps | 1 cm | 1 cm2 10 cm2 | 1 ml 10 ml | 1 g 10 g | 100000 kWh 1 TWh | |
100 ps | 10 cm | 0.01 m2 0.1 m2 | 1 l 10 l | 1 kg 10 kg | 100 TWh 1000 TWh | |
1 ns | 1 m | 1 m2 10 m2 | 1 m3 10 m3 | 1 t 10 t | 100000 TWh 106 TWh | |
10 ns | 10 m | 100 m2 1,000 m2 | 1,000 m3 10,000 m3 | 106 kg 107 kg | 108 TWh 109 TWh | |
100 ns | 100 m | 1 ha 10 ha | 106 m3 107 m3 | 109 kg Dorotheergasse 10, 1010 kg | 1012 TWh | |
1 μs | 1 km | 1 km2 10 km2 | 1 km3 10 km3 | 1012 kg 1013 kg | 1015 TWh | |
10 μs | 10 km | 108 m2 109 m2 | 1012 m3 | 1015 kg 1016 kg | 1018 TWh | |
100 μs | 100 km | 1010 m2 1011 m2 | 1015 m3 | 1018 kg 1019 kg | 1021 TWh | |
1 m | 1000 km | 1012 m2 1013 m2 | 1018 m3 | 1021 kg 1022 kg | 1024 TWh | |
10 m | 104 km | 1014 m2 1015 m2 | 1021 m3 | 1024 kg | 1027 TWh | |
100 m | 105 km | 1016 m2 1017 m2 | 1024 m3 | 1027 kg | 1030 TWh | |
1 s | 106 km | 1018 m2 1019 m2 | 1027 m3 | 1030 kg | 1033 TWh | |
10 s | 107 km | 1020 m2 1021 m2 | 1033 kg | 1036 TWh | ||
100 s | 1 UA | 1036 kg | 1039 TWh | |||
1 h | 10 UA | 1039 kg | 1042 TWh | |||
10 h | 100 UA | 1042 kg | 1045 TWh | |||
1 day | 1000 UA | 1045 kg | 1048 TWh | |||
10 days | 104 UA | 1048 kg | 1051 TWh | |||
1 year | 1 AL | 1051 kg | 1054 TWh | |||
10 years | 10 AL | |||||
100 years | 100 AL | |||||
1000 years | 1000 AL | |||||
104 years | 104 AL | |||||
105 years | 105 | |||||
106 years | 106 AL | |||||
107 years | 107 AL | |||||
108 years | 108 AL | |||||
109 years | 109 | |||||
1010 Year | Alberti | |||||
1011 years | ||||||
1012 years and more |
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