Average Mass of a dust particle?

[soulslicer]

Does anyone know? For a mass of a single dust particle. I need it for a project. Google is failing me..

 

[Dekstar]

Is it to do with a question about how the mass of an object changes over time due to outside factors?
Like how the average kilogram's mass is changing?

 

[soulslicer]

No, it is just the simple mass of an average dust particle? Anyone knows?

 

[Sui]

Well surely it would vary, as dust is mainly just dead skin and such.

 

[The Monkey]

^ QTF

We need to define what a dust particle is before can start speculate on its mass.

 

[Beerdude26]

Well household dust is mainly dead skin particles and such, so let's concentrate on that.

 

[Raziaar]

Uhhh... two pounds?

 

[Asymptote]

My estimate is: 0.0000000000014 kg.

 

[Parrot of doom]

Likely the weight of a skin cell minus the water.

 

[kirovman]

It depends what kind of dust. Household dust, space dust, sahara desert dust???

 

[soulslicer]

household dust clearly..

 

[The Brick]

I thought house dust was mainly poop from dust mites floating around. Catch as many with your tongue as possible!

 

[Raziaar]

I thought house dust was mainly poop from dust mites floating around. Catch as many with your tongue as possible!

It'd be kind of weird that we can see the poop but not the mites, no? Unless they defecate with such vigor and quantity that they make mountains out of the stuff in comparison to their populations and size.

 

[theotherguy]

dust is mainly dead skin cells.

usually dust is more than just one cell though. They're usually in clumps of hundreds (or else you wouldn't be able to see them).

The typical mass of any biological cell is about 1 nanogram.

So I would assume a "particle" of dust, which probably has hundreds or thousands of cells, is somewhere between 100-1000 nanograms.

 

[Dan]

I would estimate something on the order of 1 mg. If it is any help, you shed about a pound of skin every year and the average surface area of an adult is around 2 square metres. A dust particle is on the order of 1 micrometer. So doing a quick calculation, so at ~500 kg/m^3. That is around 5*10^-16 kg, or 0.5 picograms.

This website gives 4kg of skin every year for a shed rate of 40 000 cells per minute. You can look up the diameter of a skin cell to esimate the mass of a single cell. Divide 1 micron by the characteristic diameter and multiply b the mass of a single cell to get an estimate for the dust mass. It is probably on the high side because actual dust is dehydrated.

http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/body/skin_noSW.html