Charles R. Conner Jr., Age 13, of Kingstree, S.C., for his question:

How big is an atom?

Atoms come in various sizes, but the largest of thaw is much too small for the human Eye t0 see.  The iron atom is one of the median size ones, and scientists estimate that it takes a row of about 100 million iron atoms to measure one inch.  The tiny atom seems too small even to imagine, but we can stretch our minds and try.

Imagine a beach ball one mile wide and a pinprick in a sheet of paper.  Now make them shrink at the same rate.  When the mi1F wide ball got down to the size of the pinprick, the pinprick would be about as big as a medium size atom.