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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