Understanding the size of bacteria

Simple objects are scaled up in size and used to illustrate just how tiny bacteria can be. An ordinary needle has been scaled up by a factor of 5,000. The giant needle is 250 metres long. This comparison is used with bacteria. The viewer is asked to think how big a single bacterial cell would be if it was also magnified 5,000 times. Would it be the size of a beach ball, a football, a golf ball or a garden pea? It would be the size of a pea. Bacteria are just one group of microbes. If algae were magnified 5,000 times they would be the size of a golf ball, while another single-celled organism, an amoeba, would be the size of a beach ball.