Microscopic · #1010 biggest of 1,014
How big is a carbon atom?
140 pm
A carbon atom measures 140 pm. It would take roughly 714 of them to span a virus.
By the numbers
- That's 140 pm — down at the scale of individual atoms.
- You'd need about 12.1 billion of them stacked up to reach the height of an average adult.
- About 714 of them would fit across a virus.
- Out of all 1,014 things in this collection, it ranks #1010 by size.
Size comparison
How carbon atom stacks up against things of a similar size. Tap any bar to explore it.
strand of DNA (width)
2.5 nm
strand of DNA (width)
2.5 nm
glucose molecule
1.0 nm
buckyball (C60)
7.0e+2 pm
carbon atom
1.4e+2 pm
hydrogen atom
1.0e+2 pm
helium atom
62 pm
atomic nucleus
0.010 pm
proton
0.0017 pm
Bars use a logarithmic scale so everything fits — real differences are even more extreme!
Fun fact
It's so small that about 7.14 million of them would fit across a single millimeter.
More in Microscopic
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