It is easy to guess that nanotechnology is a type of technology. Technology is a combination of knowledge, equipment, and methods used in scientific and industrial work. All computers that are made today are technology. Satellites are technology, so cell phones and cable and mostly everything that uses electronics is technology. Nanotechnology is only one of many types of technology.

    Nanotechnology is the art and science of manipulating and rearranging individual atoms and molecules to create useful materials, devices and systems.

    Nanotechnology got its name from Greek nanos or dwarves. Dwarves are small, so you can conclude that nanotechnology is small as well. The prefix nano means one billionth of something, so a nanometer is one billionth of a meter. A nanometer is abbreviated as 1 nm. Here is a table that shows how a nanometer is compared to other meters?

Name Fraction of a Meter
meter 1/1
decimeter 1/10
centimeter 1/100
millimeter 1/1,000
micrometer 1/1,000,000
nanometer 1/1,000,000,000
picometer 1/1,000,000,000,000

   

     Nanotechnology is made at the scale of .1 to 100 nanometers. Anything smaller than a nanometer is a loose atom or molecule, so nanotechnology makes the smallest objects that it is possible to make.

     A picometer is a unit smaller than a nanometer. It measures 1 trillionth of a meter, so don't think that a nanometer is the smallest unit of measurement. To help understand nanotechnology better, you need to know exactly what it is and what it isn't. IBM semiconductor chips that are used in computers and other electronics have transistors as wide as 130 nanometers, that can now be measured at a scale near 100 nanometers. However, they were made by the same process as the big chips so they are they same but just smaller. Another thing that shouldn't be messed around with is that nanotechnology isn't always small. Some large items are considered nanotechnology because a tiny part of them has nanotechnology.