Going the other way.
While the universe is big, it's startling how tiny parts of its contents are.
An atom has a diameter of ~2-3x10^-10 meters - http://hyperphysics....cles/atomsiz.html - or 0.2-0.3 nm. AMD and Intel are selling CPUs based on 45 nm design rules (some distances on the chip are substantially smaller).
The electron is point-like - it has no physical size. Measurements show it has a radius no larger than 10^-22 meters - http://en.wikipedia....mental_properties
The problem with measuring dramatically smaller distances is that larger and more massive equipment is required. The physical limit is the Planck distance (~10^-35 meters). Supposedly, to try to measure something smaller would require an interferometer that would be massive enough to create a black hole... http://www.newscient...th-announced.html
In contrast, the lower-limit of the diameter of the universe is estimated to be 78x10^9 light years ( http://en.wikipedia....servable_universe ) or 7.4 x10^26 meters.
A neat short video of the sizes of the planets and a few stars - http://www.youtube.c...tch?v=P38ri8vQjRU
One of course would be remiss without mentioning Powers of 10: http://en.wikipedia....iki/Powers_of_Ten
http://www.powersof10.com/
Cheers,
Scott.
