Microscopic · #1011 biggest of 1,014
How big is a hydrogen atom?
100 pm
A hydrogen atom measures 100 pm. It would take roughly 1000 of them to span a virus.
By the numbers
- That's 100 pm — down at the scale of individual atoms.
- You'd need about 17 billion of them stacked up to reach the height of an average adult.
- About 1000 of them would fit across a virus.
- Out of all 1,014 things in this collection, it ranks #1011 by size.
Size comparison
How hydrogen atom stacks up against things of a similar size. Tap any bar to explore it.
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 10 million of them would fit across a single millimeter.
More in Microscopic
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