No wonder I'm always so tired

[firecat]

via the Exploratorium newsletter
http://www.exploratorium.edu

DID YOU KNOW?
...that your fingernails grow at the rate of about one nanometer per second?
A nanometer (nm) is one-billionth of a meter-about the width of an average
molecule. For comparison, a human DNA molecule is about 2.5 nanometers wide,
while a strand of human hair can be 50-100,000 nm in diameter.

Comments

[bookofnights.livejournal.com]

I did not know that. Cool :)

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

That conjures up a very silly vision of gluing a small mirror to my fingernail and putting it into an interferometer, holding my hand very still, so I could watch the interference fringes go buy as my fingernail grows.

I'd have to hold my hand very very VERY still, though.

[opalmirror.livejournal.com]

Cool idea, I suspect that respiratory and heartbeat-driven blood pressure changes changing the placement of everything would make this difficult.

Semirelated thought. Light propagates on the order of a nanometer a second.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

.... in slow glass.

In a vacuum it's more like taking 3 nanoseconds to travel a meter.

(And I *did* say I'd have to hold my hand very very VERY still ;-) )