The 3rd dimension
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Powers of ten: a sense of scale
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/
It is extraordinarily hard to imagine how small are atoms and molecules compared with anything we can see.
A fun way of getting some idea of the scale of things from a galaxy to an proton is to visit the powers-of-ten web site.
When you get to the web site you will find other interesting features to explore including both the galleria and photo gallery with many, many images taken with microscopes.
You will need to check out the tutorials on 'polarised light' and on 'polarised light microscopy' to makes sense of many of the images. These tutorials have some neat animations which are very clear if you have a reasonably fast internet connection.
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updated: 20 July 2003
