The size of an atom

Spanish Version

Atoms are the fundamental particles of matter. Formerly, they were thought to be the smallest ones, there was nothing tinier than them. Although today subatomic particles have been discovered, atoms are still small, on a scale that is often difficult to understand.

John shows us a strip of paper about 30 centimeters long, and starts to cut it in halves. With each cut, its size is reduced by 50%, so it will become increasingly smaller and smaller. The limit that we can reach is 10 cuts, and the piece of paper is almost invisible. To get an idea, to get a piece of paper of the size of the atom we would have to make 30 cuts, 20 times more than we have been able to do.