How big is a micrometer

To help compare different orders of magnitude, this lists lengths between 10⁻⁵ m and 10⁻⁴ m (10 µm and 100 µm).

• 10 µm – width of cotton fiber
• 10 µm – transistor width of the Intel 4004, the world's first commercial microprocessors
• 10 µm – mean longest dimension of a human red blood cell
• 5–20 µm – dust mite excreta^[37]
• 10.6 µm – wavelength of light emitted by a carbon dioxide laser
• 15 µm – width of silk fiber
• 17 µm – minimum width of a strand of human hair
• 17.6 µm – one twip, a unit of length in typography
• 10 to 55 µm – width of wool fiber^]
• 25.4 µm – 1/1000 inch, commonly referred to as 1 mil in the U.S. and 1 thou in the UK
• 50 µm – typical length of a human live cell, an average-sized body cell
• 70 to 180 µm – thickness of paper

To help compare different orders of magnitude, this lists lengths between 10^{−4 m} and 10⁻³ m (100 µm and 1 mm).

• 100 µm – 1/10 of a millimeter
• 100 µm – 0.00394 inches
• 100 µm – average diameter of a strand of human hair
• 100 µm – thickness of a coat of paint
• 100 µm – length of a dust particle
• 181 µm – maximum width of a strand of human hair
• 100–400 µm – length of Demodex mites living in human hair follicles
• 250–300 µm – length of a dust mite
• 340 µm – length of a single pixel on a 17-inch monitor with a resolution of 1024×768
• 560 µm - thickness of the central area of a human cornea
• 760 µm – thickness of an identification card