Microscopic · #1008 biggest of 1,014
How big is a glucose molecule?
1 nm
A glucose molecule measures 1 nm. That's about 10 atoms lined up end to end.
By the numbers
- That's 1 nanometers (nm) — smaller than a wavelength of visible light.
- You'd need about 1.7 billion of them stacked up to reach the height of an average adult.
- Roughly 10 atoms could line up across it.
- Out of all 1,014 things in this collection, it ranks #1008 by size.
Size comparison
How glucose molecule stacks up against things of a similar size. Tap any bar to explore it.
transistor (modern chip)
3.0 nm
transistor
3.0 nm
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
Bars use a logarithmic scale so everything fits — real differences are even more extreme!
Fun fact
It's so small that about 1 million of them would fit across a single millimeter.
More in Microscopic
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