

This web page shows the scale of a hydrogen atom. The diameter of a hydrogen atom is roughly 100,000 times larger than a proton. Therefore, if we make a proton the size of the picture above, 1000 pixels across, then the electron orbiting this proton is located 50,000,000 pixels to the right (but could be found anywhere in the sphere around the proton at that distance). Your monitor displays 72 dots per inch (dpi), so you would need a monitor that is nearly 11 miles (17.5 km) wide to view the whole page! Go ahead and grab the scrollbar at the bottom of the page to get a feel for exactly how far away that is! Note: For illustrative purposes, this is a simplification of the subatomic particles. Standard quantum electrodynamics (QED) treats the electron as a point particle and through experiments has placed the diameter to be more than 1,000,000 times smaller than the one depicted above. Go to the Build an Atom page.