This is a question of scale. If I were the size of a Hydrogen atom,
then how big would the Milky Way be?

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 07 Mar 2006 18:53 PST

twrriegel...

In addition to the math provided by kottekoe-ga, here's a site
which allows you to experience the sense of scale visually, as
well as providing measurements of each step along the way.
You'll need to have java enabled in your browser:

"View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth.
 Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders
 of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the
 buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in
 Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual
 size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell
 walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the
 subatomic universe of electrons and protons."
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html

Let me know if this satisfies your interests in asking the
question, and I'll post a formal answer...

sublime1-ga

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Clarification of Question by twrriegel-ga on 22 Mar 2006 19:14 PST

In Response to...
> Let me know if this satisfies your interests in asking the
> question, and I'll post a formal answer...

Yes it does

twrriegel...

Thanks very much for confirming my input as your answer.
I'll repeat it here for the sake of future readers:

--------------------------------------------------------

In addition to the math provided by kottekoe-ga, here's a site
which allows you to experience the sense of scale visually, as
well as providing measurements of each step along the way.
You'll need to have java enabled in your browser:

"View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth.
 Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders
 of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the
 buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in
 Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual
 size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell
 walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the
 subatomic universe of electrons and protons."
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html

sublime1-ga

You = 2 meter
Hydrogen = 10^-10 meter
Galaxy = 10^5 lightyear

Now type this into Google:

(10^-5) lightyear / (2 mile) 

This gives 29 million miles, about one third of the way to the sun.

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%2810%5E-5%29+lightyear+%2F+%282+mile%29+&btnG=Search

The milky way would still be the same size.