I thought the same thing exactly. I usually convert everything on molecular scales in terms of proportions to the nearest tangible entity. (I find nm too abstract and harder to remember)
A single hydrogen atom has diameter of about 10e-10 meters.
A single nanometer is 10e-9 (i.e. about 10 hydrogens stacked)
Viruses are on order of 50-100 nanometers => ~500-1000 hydrogens across.
These viruses are 10e-6 meters, or 10,000 hydrogens across.
That's too many to imagine and hard to remember, so other useful dimensions I sometimes use are
diameter of DNA helix is about 2nm (20 hydrogens across)
the size of X chromosome, which is roughly 7um.
the size of a cells in our bodies vary around 10-100um.
so, the best way to get a sense of scale for this particular virus (imo) is to imagine it as 1/7th of size of an X chromosome. Or as 10x bigger than an average virus.
A single hydrogen atom has diameter of about 10e-10 meters.
A single nanometer is 10e-9 (i.e. about 10 hydrogens stacked)
Viruses are on order of 50-100 nanometers => ~500-1000 hydrogens across.
These viruses are 10e-6 meters, or 10,000 hydrogens across.
That's too many to imagine and hard to remember, so other useful dimensions I sometimes use are
diameter of DNA helix is about 2nm (20 hydrogens across)
the size of X chromosome, which is roughly 7um.
the size of a cells in our bodies vary around 10-100um.
so, the best way to get a sense of scale for this particular virus (imo) is to imagine it as 1/7th of size of an X chromosome. Or as 10x bigger than an average virus.