A picometre is a unit

Units of measurement

A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a physical quantity, defined and adopted by convention and/or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same physical quantity. Any other value of the physical quantity can be expressed as a simple multiple of the unit of...

 of length

Length

In geometric measurements, length most commonly refers to the longest dimension of an object.In certain contexts, the term "length" is reserved for a certain dimension of an object along which the length is measured. For example it is possible to cut a length of a wire which is shorter than wire...

 in the metric system

Metric system

The metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...

, equal to one trillionth, i.e. (¹/_{1,000,000,000,000}) of a metre

Metre

The metre , symbol m, is the base unit of length in the International System of Units . Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the Earth's equator to the North Pole , its definition has been periodically refined to reflect growing knowledge of metrology...

, which is the current SI

International System of Units

The International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system and is generally a system of units of measurement devised around seven base units and the convenience of the number ten. The older metric system included several groups of units...

 base unit

SI base unit

The International System of Units defines seven units of measure as a basic set from which all other SI units are derived. These SI base units and their physical quantities are:* metre for length...

 of length. It can be written in scientific notation

Scientific notation

Scientific notation is a way of writing numbers that are too large or too small to be conveniently written in standard decimal notation. Scientific notation has a number of useful properties and is commonly used in calculators and by scientists, mathematicians, doctors, and engineers.In scientific...

 as 1×10⁻¹² m, or as in engineering notation — both meaning .

It equals a millionth of a micrometre

Micrometre

A micrometer , is by definition 1×10-6 of a meter .In plain English, it means one-millionth of a meter . Its unit symbol in the International System of Units is μm...

 (formerly called a micron), and was formerly called micromicron, stigma, or bicron. The symbol µµ was once used for it. It is also a hundredth of an angstrom

Ångström

The angstrom or ångström, is a unit of length equal to 1/10,000,000,000 of a meter . Its symbol is the Swedish letter Å....

, an internationally recognised but non-SI unit of length.

The picometre's length is of an order such that its application is almost entirely confined to particle physics

Particle physics

Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...

 and quantum physics. Atom

Atom

The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...

s are between 62 and 520 pm in diameter. Smaller units still may be used to describe smaller particles (some of which are the components of atoms themselves), such as hadron

Hadron

In particle physics, a hadron is a composite particle made of quarks held together by the strong force...

s and the upper limits of possible size for fermion

Fermion

In particle physics, a fermion is any particle which obeys the Fermi–Dirac statistics . Fermions contrast with bosons which obey Bose–Einstein statistics....

 point particles.

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) probe currently planned to be launched in 2025 to directly detect gravitational wave

Gravitational wave

In physics, gravitational waves are theoretical ripples in the curvature of spacetime which propagates as a wave, traveling outward from the source. Predicted to exist by Albert Einstein in 1916 on the basis of his theory of general relativity, gravitational waves theoretically transport energy as...

s should be able to measure relative displacements with a resolution of 20 picometres over a distance of 5 million kilometres, yielding a strain sensitivity of better than 1 part in 10²⁰.