• Question: how small are microorganisms?

    Asked by 968curm25 to Jacque on 8 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Jacque Cilliers

      Jacque Cilliers answered on 8 Mar 2018:

      Micro organisms are so small that you need a really good microscope to see them.. in the order of 1000 times magnification to see bacteria.

      Bacteria are about 1 micrometres
      The biggest virus is about 400 nanometres

      Look at it this way. If you enlarged a bacteria to the size of a football, and you placed 1000 footballs in a line… and then shrank them back to the size of a bacteria…. all the footballs would fit in 1mm!

      Viruses are smaller still. If a virus was the size of a marble, you could fit 2500 marbles in a line across the football (bacteria)!!!

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