Sizing Milligrams

[Titchmac]

Can anyone tell me something that would be the size of 45mg and 146mg. I.E. a pinhead - would that be the size of 45mg and a 1p - would that be the size of 146mg?

[mibn2cweus]

1p weighs 3560mg

[colynne43]

Hi, we are talking about very small weights here, one gram is approx .035 of an ounce and one milligram is a thousandth of a gram so 45 milligrammes is 45 thoudsandths of a gram. Nor sure, so i'll have to check, but your looking at maybee a grain of sugar for your 45 milligrammes.

[bednobs]

you cant really compare weights to sizes as it would depend on what was being weighed

[jake-the-peg]

water has a density of 1g per cc.

Imagine a cube of water 1cm along each side - that's a gram

Imagine a cube of water 1mm along each side that's a mg (miligram)

45 mg is the equivilent of a cube of water about 3.5 mm along each side - so what's that a large raindrop?

146mg about 5mm along each side

Does that help any?

[Titchmac]

Thanks to both mibn2cweus and colynne43. I think I get the idea of how much (or how little) a milligram is.
Don't suppose anyone knows what "1,149 μg m-3" means? Not very scientifically minded I'm afraid.

[Titchmac]

Thanks jake-the-peg. Indeed it does.

[jake-the-peg]

"1,149 μg m-3"

Is a density if that comma is correct and should not be a full stop then it means 1,149 micrograms per cubic meter.

that is the same as 1.49 miligrams per cubic metre which is not very dense at all!

That is the equivilent weight (mass) of one and a half cubic centimeters of water in an entire cubic metre.

I guess that's like a raindrop of detergent in a bath of water

[Gef]

"1,149 ?g m-3" means 1.149 micrograms per cubic metre - it is an expression of the density of something.

A microgram is a millionth of a gram. A cubic metre is one million cubic centimetres.

It is a very low figure.

Hydrogen gas, the least dense of all the elements has a density of approx 90 million micrograms per cubic metre.

[Gef]

Sorry, I think I got my commas and decimal points mixed up (old eyes you know) but the gist of my answer is still the same.

[Gef]

I think jake means 1149 milligrams (1.149g) per cubic metre.

[Gef]

Sorry cocked that last one up. I'll let jake explain his own mistake.

[jake-the-peg]

no I do mean microgram the greek letter mu (μ) means millionth so 1,149μg is the same as 1.149 mg or just over a thousandth of a gram.

I presume it's actually a concentration (hence my analogy of drops in a bath) rather than a density because as pointed out that's very low

[Titchmac]

Big thanks to all who answered, I am now aware of how tiny the sizing actually is.