This is a great question that highlights the incredible scale of the universe! It's impossible to give a simple answer like "10 times smaller" because the difference is so vast. Here's a breakdown:

* Atoms: Atoms are incredibly tiny. The diameter of a typical atom is on the order of 0.1 nanometers (nm). That's 100 billionth of a meter!

* Dime: A dime is about 17.91 mm in diameter (0.01791 meters).

Comparison:

* If you were to scale a dime up to the size of the Earth, an atom would be about the size of a grain of sand.

* To put it another way, a dime is roughly 10 billion times larger than a single atom.

The Takeaway: The difference in size between an atom and a dime is mind-boggling! It's a powerful illustration of the incredibly small world of the atomic realm.