About The Speed Scale
Created by Nolan Schleiff
Scroll, swipe or use the arrow keys to travel left to right, from a stalactite growing in a cave up to the speed of light, about twenty powers of ten. The big number in the top left is the speed you're looking at, in metres per second. Each stop is shown with how many times faster it is than the one before.
What's Simplified
- Speeds are typical or record values and are rounded. Animals, plants and the solar wind all vary a lot from one case to the next.
- Every speed is measured relative to something: the ISS relative to Earth, Earth and Voyager 1 relative to the Sun, Andromeda relative to the Milky Way.
- An electron in an atom doesn't really orbit. Its speed here is the typical speed quantum mechanics gives it.
- Every stop is drawn at the same size, and distances inside the drawings aren't to scale. Some animations are slowed down (light, kinesin) or sped up as time-lapses (bamboo, hair). They are illustrations, not simulations.
Sources
- Speed of light: exact by definition of the metre (SI, BIPM).
- S2: the GRAVITY collaboration (2018).
- Parker Solar Probe, Voyager 1, the ISS, Earth's orbit and the solar wind: NASA.
- Andromeda's approach: van der Marel et al. (2012, 2019) and Sawala et al., Nature Astronomy (2025).
- SR-71 speed record: Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (1976).
- Usain Bolt's top speed: biomechanics analysis of the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
- Bamboo: Guinness World Records, fastest-growing plant.
- Kinesin steps: Svoboda et al., Nature (1993).
- The Moon's drift: Lunar Laser Ranging using the Apollo retroreflectors.
Get Involved
Spotted a mistake or want something added? Leave a suggestion. Enjoying it? Support the project.
A text version of every stop is available for screen readers.
See the other scales on the home page.
Scale Of Everything™ · © 2026 Nolan Schleiff. All rights reserved.