Today, the total range of vacuum pressure accessible to measurement extends from atmospheric pressure (about 1000 mbar (750 Torr)) down to 10^-12 mbar/  0.75•10^-12 Torr, i.e. it extends over 15 powers of ten. The instruments used for measuring the pressure within this wide range are called vacuum gauges. For physical reasons it is not possible to create a single vacuum sensor through which it might be possible to perform quantitative measurements within the entire pressure range. Therefore, a variety of different vacuum gauges are available, each with their own characteristic measurement range which commonly extends over several powers of ten.