Benchmark quantities
Benchmark Values for (Nearly) Any Type of Physical Quantity
When encountering the unfamiliar in terms of the very large or the very small, this page is meant to help put the unfamiliar into perspective. For example, people know that a million miles (or kilometers) is a very long distance. But what is it comparable to? You probably know that it's larger than a typical continent ... or than Earth itself. But is it comparable to the distance to the Moon, or perhaps to the Sun? Or to the nearest star other than the Sun? Or to the size of our galaxy ... or the distance to the nearest galaxy?
Likewise, one millionth of an inch (or of a centimeter) is certainly small, but is it most comparable to the size of an atomic nucleus, a whole atom, a virus, or perhaps a single-celled organism?
Besides distances, similar questions can be asked about very fast or very slow speeds, very large or small masses, or time spans, or temperatures, ... and many other types of physical quantities.
Every quantity is given in terms of S.I. (metric) units. In some cases, alternative units are given if they are in common use. For example, the distance between Earth and the Sun, besides being given in meters, is also one Astronomical Unit (AU) by definition, and the AU is used for the distances to other objects within the solar system as well. Still larger distances are well represented by using light-years.
Time
Note, the repeat periods of cyclical phenomena, like the cycle time of a typical sound frequency, are not generally included here. Doing so would simply repeat information that can be found in the frequency section of this article. An exception is made for the period of rotation or revolution of astronomical bodies such as Earth or the Moon, since these have historically served as standard definitions of time intervals like the day or the year.
| Value, in Seconds | Alternative Units | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 5.39 x 10-44 | Planck time | |
| 1.1 x 10-10 | Period of cesium-133 hyperfine transition used to define the second | |
| 1.6 x 10-9 | Lifetime of the first excited state of a hydrogen atom | |
| 0.2 | Human reaction time (typical) | |
| 1.3 | Light travel time, Earth to the Moon (one-way) | |
| 500 | 8.3 minutes | Light travel time, Earth to the Sun (one-way) |
| 5500 | 92 minutes | Orbital period of satellite at 400 km altitude |
| 8.64 x 104 | 1 Day | |
| 2.4 (2.5) x 106 | 27.3 (29.5) days | Orbital period of the Moon (Synodic period, or period of the Moon's phases) |
| 3.16 x 107 | 1 Year | Orbital period of Earth |
| 2.4 x 109 | 76 years | Human lifetime (typical) |
| 7.8 x 109 | 248 years | Orbital period of Pluto |
| 1.2 x 1013 | 380 x 103 years | Age of the universe when neutral hydrogen atoms formed |
| 6.2 x 1015 | 0.20 billion years | Orbital period of the Sun around the galaxy |
| 1.4 x 1017 | 4.5 billion years | Age of the solar system |
| 4.3 x 1017 | 13.7 billion years | Age of the universe |
Distance and length
| Value, in meters | Alternative Units | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1.62 x 10-35 | Planck length | |
| 1.8 x 10-15 | Diameter of a proton (hydrogen nucleus) | |
| 1-1.2 x 10-14 | 10-12 fm | Diameter of nucleus for heavy atoms |
| 5.29 x 10-10 | 0.529 Angstroms | Radius of hydrogen atom (Bohr model) |
| 3 x 10-8 | 30 nm | rhinovirus (cold virus) diameter |
| 0.8-1.2 x 10-7 | 80-120 nm | Influenza virus diameter |
| 0.2-3 x 10-7 | 20-300 nm | Virus diameter (typical range) |
| 4-7 x 10-7 | 400-700 nm | Wavelength range of visible light |
| 0.1-600 x 10-6 | Bacterium | |
| 1-2 x 10-5 | Amoeba (typical) | |
| 1 x 10-4 | 0.1 mm | Human hair thickness (typical) |
| 6-7 x 10-3 | 6-7 mm | Housefly length (typical) |
| 2 | Human height (typical) | |
| 25 | Blue whale length | |
| 527 | Sears Tower height (to top of antenna) | |
| 8.8 x 103 | Mount Everest, height above sea level | |
| 4 x 106 | North America, width at approx. 40 degrees North latitude;
Los Angeles-to-New York distance | |
| 1.3 x 107 | Earth's diameter | |
| 3.0 x 108 | One light-second, the distance that light travels in one second | |
| 3.8 x 108 | Earth-Moon distance | |
| 1.4 x 109 | The Sun's diameter | |
| 1.50 x 1011 | 1 Astronomical Unit (AU) | Earth-Sun average distance |
| 4.5 x 1012 | 30 AU | Sun-Neptune distance |
| 9.46 x 1015 | 1 light-year (ly)
63.2 thousand AU |
The distance that light travels in one year |
| 3.09 x 1016 | 3.26 ly | 1 parsec |
| 4.0 x 1016 | 4.2 ly | Sun-Proxima Centauri distance |
| 8.6 x 1017 | 91 ly | Geometric mean of distances to 20 brightest starts (excluding the Sun)
(One measure of a "typical" distance to the brighter stars in the sky) |
| 3.2 x 1018 | 340 ly | Mean of distances to 20 brightest starts (excluding the Sun)
(Another measure of a "typical" distance to the brighter stars in the sky) |
| 9.5 x 1020 | 100 thousand ly | Diameter of our galaxy, the Milky Way |
| 1.5 x 1021 | 160 thousand ly | Distance to Large Magellanic Cloud |
| 2.4 x 1022 | 2.5 million ly | Distance to Andromeda galaxy |
Speed
| Value, in meters per second | Alternative Units | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2 x 10-9 | 6 cm or 2 inches per year | Rate of separation of Africa and South America |
| 1 x 10-7 | 3 inches per week | Rate at which grass grows (est.) |
| 7 x 10-6 | Tip of hour hand on a wall clock (2" length) | |
| 2 x 10-4 | Tip of minute hand on a wall clock (4" length) | |
| 0.01 | Tip of second hand on a wall clock (4" length) | |
| 0.03 | 1 inch per second | Insect walking |
| 1.3 | 3 miles per hour (mph) | Human walking |
| 6.7 | "4-minute mile" | Fast human distance runner |
| 10 | Fast human sprinter | |
| 27 | 60 mph | Automobile highway speed |
| 107 | 240 mph | Approx. top speed of Indy race car |
| 343 | Speed of sound (dry air, atmospheric pressure, 20 C temperature)
Standard muzzle velocity of 0.22 caliber long rifle | |
| 460 | Speed of Earth's surface at equator | |
| 510 | Speed (rms) of air molecule at around room temperature (27 C, 300 K) | |
| 1020 | The Moon (relative to Earth) | |
| 2700 | Speed (rms) of a hydrogen atom at around room temperature (27 C, 300 K) | |
| 3100 | Satellite in geosynchronous orbit (rela. to Earth) | |
| 4700 | Pluto (rela. to the Sun) | |
| 7670 | Satellite in low-Earth orbit (400 km altitude) | |
| 3.0 x 104 | Earth (rela. to the Sun) | |
| 4.8 x 104 | Mercury (rela. to the Sun) | |
| 2 x 105 | c/1500 | The Sun (rela. to the center of our galaxy |
| 2.2 x 106 | c/137 | Speed of electron in hydrogen ground state (Bohr model) |
| 2 x 108 | (2/3)c | Speed of light in glass
Speed of electronic signal in typical coaxial cable |
| 2.6 x 108 | 0.87c | Speed of an object when its kinetic energy is equal to its rest mass energy mc2 |
| 3 x 108 | 186,000 miles per second | The speed of light, c |