Unit Systems in Small Scales

The development of various microsystems also requires new definition of unit system to describe these devices. Volume is associated with exponent equal to 3 of the length scale of a system that is, V If length scale reduces from centimeters to micrometers, the volume decreases by 12 orders of magnitude. Therefore, micro world requires appropriate units for describing small quantities. Table 1.1 shows different units for description of microsystems. 

A microfluidic system commonly contains volume of about 10 to few hundred nanoliters. A biological cell having a typical size of 10 pm diameter encloses a volume of 4 pi. Recently, it has been shown that miniaturized electrochemical method can detect the presence of about zeptomole ofDNA. 

Unit name Power Unit name Power 

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