What do nanometers (nm) refer to when talking about microprocessors? Why is smaller better?

Question

I often hear about a new, smaller microprocessor that is, for example 5nm instead of 7nm.

In: Engineering

Answer 1

The size of the all the little tiny switches and operators that let computers compute stuff! Smaller is better because the smaller things are the more you can fit in that space AND you reduce the distance that particles called electrons (which make up electric current flow) need to travel to make it “faster”.

It’s not too meaningful of a number nowadays and more of a marketing thing, but it was important some time ago.