The Angstrom unit is most suitable for describing a measurement of what?

An Angstrom (symbol: Å) is a unit of measure.

The Angstrom unit is most suitable for describing a measurement of atomic distance, the the distance between two atoms in a molecule.

For example the main gaseous components of air are: 78% Nitrogen (N2), 21%
Oxygen (O2) and 1% Argon (Ar).

The Angstrom unit is used to measure some of the size attributes of these gases:

N2 gas has 2 atoms of Nitrogen, O2 gas has 2 atoms of Oxygen. Argon gas is a single atom.

N2 gas has 2 atoms attached with a bond length of 1.09 Å
O2 gas has 2 atoms attached with a bond length of 1.21 Å
N2 gas has a diameter of 3.16 Å *
O2 gas has a diameter of 2.96 Å *
Ar gas has 1 atom with mean radius of 0.95Å

* This is a "gas viscosity kinetic diameter" as N2 and O2 are not spherical.


The Angstrom unit is one ten-billionth of a meter.
To put the Angstrom size in perspective:

1.0 Meter, 1 M
0.01 ^10-2 CentiMeter, hundredth, 1/100 M
0.001 ^10-3 MilliMeter, thousandth, 1/1,000 M
0.000001 ^10-6 MicroMeter, millionth, 1/1,000,000 M (aka. micron)
0.000000001 ^10-9 NanoMeter, billionth, 1/1,000,000,000 M
0.0000000001 ^10-10 Angstrom 10 billionth, 1/10,000,000,000 M
0.000000000001 ^10-12 PicoMeter, trillionth, 1/1,000,000,000,000 M

DuncanMiles - Science Writer (original contributor)