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Nanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big Idea
book

Nanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big Idea

by Mark Ratner, Daniel Ratner
November 2002
Beginner
208 pages
4h 36m
English
Pearson
Content preview from Nanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big Idea

What Is Nano? A Definition

When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, he called it a small step for man and a giant leap for mankind. Nano may represent another giant leap for mankind, but with a step so small that it makes Neil Armstrong look the size of a solar system.

The prefix “nano” means one billionth. One nanometer (abbreviated as 1 nm) is 1/1,000,000,000 of a meter, which is close to 1/1,000,000,000 of a yard. To get a sense of the nano scale, a human hair measures 50,000 nanometers across, a bacterial cell measures a few hundred nanometers across, and the smallest features that are commonly etched on a commercial microchip as of February 2002 are around 130 nanometers across. The smallest things seeable with the unaided human eye are ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0131014005Purchase book