Have you ever noticed that, in a news story about some new and tiny piece of electronics or other technology, the expression "the width of a human hair" is almost guaranteed to appear? It seems to be the standard comparison for anything smaller than a millimetre, and yet it's not that good a comparison. Yes, we can see our own hairs, but because their length is by far the more obvious property, we just can't really process the idea.
However, we can process comparisons with bigger things. If you tell someone that an object is the width of a matchstick, or a Routemaster double-decker bus, or an Olympic swimming pool, then it's much easier. So, I reckon that what we need is an easy comparison between these different objects. (This idea's already partly been done by Chrico, with the Double Decker Bus Calculator; I'm going to try to do something a little different.)
First, we need to know how long or wide each of these things are. Below is a table of several objects, the approximate size of which everyone knows, but I've also included their actual size, using the best data I could find. To make the calculations easier, I've included the equivalent in metres.
| Object | Size | Equivalent (m) |
| Human hair (width) | 50 μm | 0.00005 |
| Matchstick (width) | 2 mm | 0.002 |
| Mobile phone (Nokia 5310, length) | 104 mm | 0.104 |
| A4 paper (length) | 297 mm | 0.297 |
| Office chair (height) | 93 cm | 0.93 |
| Volkswagen Beetle 1500 (length) | 4026 mm | 4.026 |
| Routemaster double-decker bus (length) | 8.4 m | 8.4 |
| Olympic-size swimming pool (length) | 50 m | 50 |
| International rugby union pitch (length) | 100 m | 100 |
| Wembley Stadium's arch (span) | 315 m | 315 |
| Distance from London to Edinburgh | 404 miles | 650175 |
| Diameter of the Earth | 7926.28 miles | 12756111 |
Hopefully, that was instructive. (Could be worse...I almost included the parsec as a unit, except that a) no-one knows what it is, and b) I don't think I could handle the calculations involved.) Now, all we need to do is set up an easy way of converting between these units...
Oh look, I appear to have found one. Type the distance you wish to convert into various other things in the box (in metres), then click "Go!". Alternatively, click one of the object names to fill in the box automatically.
Human hairs:
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