10 micrometres

A clickable mosaic of objects
at scales within direct human experience, from the micrometric (10⁻⁶ m, top left) to the multi-kilometric (10⁵ m, bottom right).

Comparison of sizes of semiconductor manufacturing process nodes with some microscopic objects and visible light wavelengths. At this scale, the width of a human hair is about 10 times that of the image.^[1]

To help compare different orders of magnitude, this page lists lengths between 10⁻⁵ m and 10⁻⁴ m (10 µm and 100 µm).

Distances shorter than 10 µm

• 10 µm – width of cotton fibre^[2]
• 10 µm – transistor width of the Intel 4004, the world's first commercial microprocessor
• 10 µm – mean longest dimension of a human red blood cell
• 5–20 µm – dust mite excreta^[3]
• 10.6 µm – wavelength of light emitted by a carbon dioxide laser
• 15 µm – width of silk fibre
• 17 µm – minimum width of a strand of human hair^[4]
• 17.6 µm – one twip, a unit of length in typography
• 10 to 55 µm – width of wool fibre^[2]
• 25.4 µm – 1/1000 inch, commonly referred to as 1 mil in the U.S. and 1 thou in the UK
• 50 µm – typical length of Euglena gracilis, a flagellate protist
• 50 µm – typical length of a human liver cell, an average-sized body cell
• 70 to 180 µm – thickness of paper

Distances longer than 100 µm

Notes

1. Graham T. Smith (2002). Industrial metrology. Springer. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-85233-507-6.
2. IST - Innovative Sintering Technologies Ltd. "Fibreshape applications". Retrieved 2008-12-04. Histogram of cotton thickness
3. Morton Lippmann (2000). Environmental Toxicants: Human Exposures and Their Health Effects. John Wiley and Sons. p. 453. ISBN 0-471-29298-2. ISBN 978-0-471-29298-2. Retrieved 2008-12-04. 20 µm .. 5 µm
4. According to The Physics Factbook, the diameter of human hair ranges from 17 to 181 µm. Ley, Brian (1999). "Width of a Human Hair". The Physics Factbook.