This morning I began wondering how a bacterium living on a human being would compare, in scale, to a human being living on the Earth. Before I present you with the actual comparisons, first we need some dry facts:
- An average cell of E. coli is 2 µm long, 0.5 µm in circumference, and 0.6 µm3 in volume.[1][2]
- An average adult human being is 1.7 m tall [3], 96 cm in circumference [4], and 0.07 m3 in volume.[5]
- The Earth is (on average) 12,742 km in diameter; 40,075 km in circumference; and 1.08 trillion km3 in volume.[6]
- The moon is (on average) 1737 km in diameter; 10,921 km in circumference; and 22 billion km3 in volume.[7]