Part 2: How Big is Nanoscale?

Nano

The Ipod Nano is pretty cool, right? But what does nano mean anyway? Is the Ipod an example of nanotechnology?

Well, yes and no. Apple probably picked "Nano" because the latest version of their music player is so small, and nano definitely means small. But nano means something much more specific to a scientist or an engineer. As you probably recall, the metric system uses a series of prefixes and base units for measurement. The prefix nano is a multiplier that means "one billionth". A nanometer is therefore one billionth of a meter. It takes about 60,000 nanometers to make up the width of one human hair!

Nanotechnology usually deals with structures that are smaller than a few hundred nanometers in size. So the Ipod Nano is not nearly small enough to be considered nanoscale by a scientist or an engineer, but some of the electronics inside the device are actually nanoscale. The next section describes how things such as electonics can be made so tiny.

Learn More

To learn more about nanoscale visit the following pages:

Nanooze: What is a Nanometer?

Nanokids: Getting Down to the Nanometer Scale