Concentration Analogies

One Part Per Million

• one automobile in bumper-to-bumper traffic from Clevelandto San Francisco
• one pancake in a stack four miles high
• 1 inch in 16 miles
• one minute in two years
• one ounce in 32 tons
• one cent in $10,000
• .0001% (or 10,000 ppm equals 1%)

One Part Per Billion

• one 4-inch hamburger in a chain of hamburgers circlingthe earth at the equator two-and-a-half times
• one silver dollar in a roll of silver dollars stretching fromDetroit to Salt Lake City
• one bogie in 3,500 golf tournaments
• one kernel of corn in a 45-foot high, 16-foot diameter silo
• one sheet in a roll of toilet paper stretching from New Yorkto London
• one second of time in 32 years

One Part Per Trillion

• one square foot of floor tile on a kitchen floor the size of Indiana
• one drop of detergent in enough dishwater to fill a string of railroad tank cars ten miles long
• one square inch in 250 square miles
• one mile on a 2-month journey at the speed of light

One Part Per Quadrillion

• one postage stamp on a letter the size of California and Oregon
• one human hair out of all the hair on all the heads of all the people in the world
• one mile on a journey of 170 light years

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