Size and Scale - Introduction

Introduction

Our life is impacted by the consequences of size and scale everyday. For the most part, we have learned to deal with everyday objects having size and scale dimensions that are naturally 'sized up' by our senses. However, it is much more difficult to get a feel for, or understand the consequences of, dimensions of physical systems many orders of magnitude removed from what we commonly experience through our senses. Of all our senses, vision, informs our mind the most. Hence, in this module we shall focus on visualization, as the primary means of gathering information. Whether it be the size and distance of celestial objects or the size of microbes, their dimensions are far beyond that which we can determine using our eyes alone. However, technological innovations, such as telescopes and microscopes, have been developed over the centuries and continue to be developed.

These tools greatly extend our sensory capabilities in our never ending quest to understand and utilize our material world that include systems spanning extreme length scales from astronomical to atomic. These 'new sets of eyes' have greatly assisted us in assessing the size and scale of diverse natural and man-made material systems that have led to a greater understanding of their structure and function and subsequent ways to exploit their properties for useful engineering applications.

We are now entering a very exciting era where we seek to better understand materials at the atomic/molecular level, and use such understanding to design materials from the nanoscale up. In order to fully appreciate materials at the nanoscale, this module is designed to provide you with an introduction of the science of measurement (metrology) and the use of the Metric System to study and exploit material systems at various sizes and scales, particularly at the nanoscale. This will help us to appreciate the intrinsic relationship between micro/nano-scopic structure and the properties of materials at the macroscopic level.

In Size and Scale, we have provided a number of interesting examples, such as the CD-ROM, to assist you in mastering important size and scale concepts using relevant natural and man-made material systems. This will serve as a beginning place to a complete set of intriguing materials modules for further exploration at the nanoscale. So once you have mastered these basic, but very important measurement concepts, we invite you to have fun and explore other INVSEE Modules that cover a wide variety of interesting material systems representing key science and engineering disciplines. So get ready and gear down...to the nanoscale, that is!

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