Don’t ask me why but I find units of measure interesting so this morning’s (May 24, 2011) announcement about a physicist reaching a measuring milestone struck a chord with me. From the May 24, 2011 news item on Nanowerk,
Research into the most sensitive measurement of force yet recorded has earned University of Sydney physicist Dr Michael Biercuk, of the School of Physics’ Quantum Science Group, the National Measurement Institute Prize for excellence in measurement techniques by a scientist under 35.
In collaboration with the Ion Storage Group at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, Dr Biercuk demonstrated it is possible to use trapped atomic ions as extremely sensitive detectors of applied forces and electromagnetic fields. In so doing, the researchers were able to measure forces with extraordinary sensitivity – down to the yoctonewton (yN) level.
The yoctonewton represents one septillionth of a newton, the unit of force named after physicist Sir Isaac Newton.
I believe the yocto is the smallest unit of measure that’s been defined. Here’s a brief review of the units of measure as they get smaller (from this Wikipedia essay),
milli thousandth
micro millionth
nano billionth
pico trillionth
femto quadrillionth
atto quintillionth
zetto sextillionth
yocto septillionth
So there we go. Nano is not the smallest of all despite what most people write about it.