Nanotechnology: Deconstructing the nano-cube
Animating the relationship between nanoparticle diameter, number and surface area. (runs best as a continuous loop) Cut a particle up so the diameter is halved, and how many smaller particles do you get? And how much does the overall surface area increase? Halving the particle diameter doubles the total surface area, and increases the number of particles eight times – while the mass remains the same. Repeat this four times, and particle diameter is one sixteenth what you started with, total surface area is increased sixteen times, and the number of particles has risen from one to 4096. By the same token, if you cut a 1 micrometer particle into ten nanometer diameter particles – nanoparticles – you would end up increasing total surface area one hundred times, and the total number of particles by a factor of one million. But the overall mass would remain the same. So the challenge is: if you want to avoid being exposed to too much of this material, what do you measure: mass, surface area or number? Tricky!
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