Diameter of helix2 billionths m
7.5 billionthsDinner plates
730 trillionthsPool tables
1 millionthsAnt body lengths
2 nm
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
DNA Double Helix
The molecule that encodes all known life/Scientific Objects
A human cell contains about 2 meters of DNA packed into a nucleus just 6 micrometers across. The double helix is 2 nanometers in diameter with a full turn every 3.4 nanometers. If you uncoiled all the DNA in your body and laid it end to end, it would stretch to the Sun and back about 600 times.
Measurements
Rise per base pair340 trillionths m
1.24Water molecules
148 trillionthsPorta-potty heights
8.1 quadrillionthsMarathon routes
0.34 nm
Full helical turn pitch3.4 billionths m
2.3 billionthsStandard pool noodles
3.6 octillionthsGlobular cluster widths
67.3 billionthsAA battery lengths
3.4 nm, 10 base pairs
Total per human cell2 m
1 millionE. coli bacteria
6.67Wine bottle heights
9.1 billionSilicon atoms
About 6.4 billion base pairs
Information content per cell750 million B
3.8 hundredthsHours of 4K video
1Human genome
About 750 MB (2 bits per base pair)
Mass per base pair1.1 sextillionths kg
3.2 septillionthsEmpty hot tubs
74.5 octillionthsSchool buses
Average ~650 daltons