Microscopic · #997 biggest of 1,014
How big is a wavelength of red light?
700 nm
A wavelength of red light measures 700 nm. That's about 7 viruses lined up end to end.
By the numbers
- That's 700 nanometers (nm) — smaller than a wavelength of visible light.
- You'd need about 2.43 million of them stacked up to reach the height of an average adult.
- Roughly 7 viruses could line up across it.
- Out of all 1,014 things in this collection, it ranks #997 by size.
Size comparison
How wavelength of red light stacks up against things of a similar size. Tap any bar to explore it.
chloroplast
5.0 µm
yeast cell
4.0 µm
bacterium (E. coli)
2.0 µm
mitochondrion
1.0 µm
wavelength of red light
7.0e+2 nm
wavelength of blue light
4.5e+2 nm
smallpox virus
3.0e+2 nm
HIV virus
1.2e+2 nm
influenza virus
1.0e+2 nm
Bars use a logarithmic scale so everything fits — real differences are even more extreme!
Fun fact
It's so small that about 1,429 of them would fit across a single millimeter.
More in Microscopic
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