# Are we big or small? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 17, 2016, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447 "2016-04-17T07:43:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/1 "2016-04-17T07:43:43Z")
There are a lot of really big things in the universe, and a lot of really small things in the universe. Where do humans fit in? Are we relatively big or small? What about the planet Earth? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/2 "2016-04-17T08:33:53Z")
The smallest object shown [on this page](http://scaleofuniverse.com/) (except for “strings” and “quantum foam”) is the neutrino, with diameter of 1 yoctometer. One of the largest objects shown at that page is the Pisces-Cetus supercluster complex, with a diameter of about 15 yottameters. The geometric mean of 1 yoctometer and 15 yottameters is about 4 meters, so an elephant is about at the mid-point of small vs big. Using more ordinary objects, 1 meter is the geometric mean of a proton’s diameter (1 femtometer) and the diameter of the Stingray Nebula (1 petameter). ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/3 "2016-04-17T12:04:27Z")
Any figure you might see for the “size of the neutrino” is nothing but a completely wild guess. No measurements which could be interpreted as corresponding to that have ever been made, and it is considered quite likely that they don’t have any size at all. Measurements have been made of the size of an electron, but all those measurements have ever found has been upper bounds on the size (an upper bound, incidentally, which is definitely much smaller than the most plausible theoretical estimate of what it “should” be). There, too, it is considered quite likely that the particle itself has zero size. I think that the smallest object which is known to exist, is known to be nonzero in size, and for which that size is known at least approximately, is the proton. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/4 "2016-04-17T12:15:34Z")
Do you know this famous short film taking you from 10 ^ -15 meters to 10 ^ 25 meters?: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0fKBhvDjuy0/hqdefault.jpg "Powers of Ten™ (1977)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/5 "2016-04-17T12:47:21Z")
“Big” and “small” are context-dependent attributes. A big sub-atomic particle is nothing, compared to a small galaxy. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/6 "2016-04-17T14:08:33Z")
Are you rich or poor? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/7 "2016-04-17T16:25:37Z")
Since the terms in the OP are relative, let’s move this to IMHO. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/8 "2016-04-17T17:17:11Z")
Could the universe, itself, be seen as an object? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/9 "2016-04-17T18:00:34Z")
According to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaGEjrADGPA), the size of a human is closer to the size of the observable universe than it is to the Planck length–the smallest measurement of length with any meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/10 "2016-04-17T19:34:44Z")
[quote=“Wendell\_Wagner, post:4, topic:752447”] Do you know this famous short film taking you from 10 ^ -15 meters to 10 ^ 25 meters?: [/QUOTE] Other posters have taken the full range -largest to smallest- and have concluded that humans (and elephants and cats) are medium. Or at least that's my take. I’ll take another try: The sun is an above average sized star. Call that “Big”. The hydrogen atom is the smallest atom. Call that “Small”. (In this exercise, I set aside “Huge” and “Tiny”. Also object collections such a galaxies.) Diameter of sun: 865,373.7 miles or 1.4 x 10^9 meters. Hydroden atom diameter: 1.06x10^-10 meters. Geo Ave: 15 cm or six inches. So by this calculation I’d say that insects, humans and elephants are medium. Pencils, dollar bills and tea kettles are very medium. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/11 "2016-04-17T21:47:57Z")
Consider that everything is made of subatomic particles. Things that we call “large” are just made of a lot of them, combined into what we perceive as a “big thing”. Your question, then, is whether people are large or small clusters of particles, which themselves are small, and it would be hard to argue against the proposition that a cluster of particles is larger than a particle, and has capacity to grow until it exhausts all the particles. Which would define large, at the opposite end of the size spectrum from the particles themselves. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/12 "2016-04-17T22:00:30Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Could the universe, itself, be seen as an object? Seen from where? ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2016, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/13 "2016-04-17T22:36:07Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Seen from where? Somewhere outside of the universe. Like New Jersey. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/14 "2016-04-18T14:39:47Z")
[quote=“Wendell\_Wagner, post:4, topic:752447”] Do you know this famous short film taking you from 10 ^ -15 meters to 10 ^ 25 meters?: [/QUOTE] That was very good, thanks for sharing. Another doper, **Elendil’s Heir** , recently shared this instructional picture in the Trivia Dominoes game thread. It’s a picture showing earth relative to Jupiter, the Sun, and some larger stars. From this, we can be pretty small. > [@Trivia Dominoes: Play Off the Last Bit of Trivia](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivia-dominoes-play-off-the-last-bit-of-trivia/527657/28898): > > Try this on for size: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Star-sizes.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Star-sizes.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/15 "2016-04-18T15:31:56Z")
Well, everything (right?!) is small compared to the total end-to-end distance of the universe, so I’d not compare us to the size of the universe. . ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/16 "2016-04-18T15:36:03Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > According to [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaGEjrADGPA), the size of a human is closer to the size of the observable universe than it is to the Planck length–the smallest measurement of length with any meaning. The video comments contain a link to an app that allows you to zoom in and out at will. You are now responsible for every ounce of time I lose today. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/17 "2016-04-18T18:59:09Z")
We are big when compared to a fig. We are small when compared to them all. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2016, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-we-big-or-small/752447/18 "2016-04-18T19:47:50Z")
well, if we look at living creatures, a blue whale is up to 170 tonnes, 170,000 kg or 2e8g. A mycoplasma bacterium is \<1 micrometer, call it a 1 um cube of water, mass is 1e-18g. Humans are about 70 kg (average-big), so 7e4 g. So by that comparison, we’re pretty darn big. 4.8 is a lot closer to 8.3 than to -18. If you’re only looking at mammals, the Etruscan shrew is 1.7 g, which puts humans just a little on the large side.