Although a meter is defined by the International Standards Organization as `the length of the path traveled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second' and a nanometer is by definition 10- 9 of a meter, this does not help scientists to communicate the nanoscale to non-scientists. It is in human nature to relate sizes by reference to everyday objects, and the commonest definition of nanotechnology is in relation to the width of a human hair.
Unfortunately, human hairs are highly variable, ranging from tens to hundreds of microns in diameter (10-6 of a meter), depending on the colour, type and the part of the body from which they are taken, so what is needed is a standard to which we can relate the nanoscale. Rather than asking anyone to imagine a millionth or a billionth of something, which few sane people can accomplish with ease, relating nanotechnology to atoms often makes the nanometer easier to imagine. While few non-scientists have a clear idea of how large an atom is, defining a nanometer as the size of 10 hydrogen, or 5 silicon atoms in a line is within the power of the human mind to grasp. The exact size of the atoms is less important than communicating the fact that nanotechnology is dealing with the smallest parts of matter that we can manipulate.
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