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Each prefix has a unique symbol that is prepended to any unit symbol. The prefix kilo-, for example, may be added to gram to indicate multiplication by one thousand: one kilogram is equal to one thousand grams. The prefix milli-, likewise, may be added to metre to indicate division by one thousand; one millimetre is equal to one thousandth of a ...
The unit prefixes are always considered to be part of the unit, so that, e.g., in exponentiation, 1 km 2 means one square kilometre, not one thousand square metres, and 1 cm 3 means one cubic centimetre, not one hundredth of a cubic metre. In general, prefixes are used with any metric unit, but may also be used with non-metric units.
kilo mega giga tera peta exa zetta yotta ronna quetta; Prefix symbol da h k M G T P E Z Y ... milli micro nano pico femto atto zepto yocto ronto quecto; Prefix symbol ...
The prefix kilo, for example, implies a factor of 1000 (10 3), and the prefix milli implies a factor of 1/1000 (10-3). Thus, a kilometre is a thousand metres, and a milligram is one thousandth of a gram. These relations can be written symbolically as: [4]
Commonly, a decimal SI metric prefix (such as kilo-) is used with bit and byte to express larger sizes (kilobit, kilobyte). But, this is usually inaccurate since these prefixes are decimal, whereas binary hardware size is usually binary.
Metric units are units based on the metre, gram or second and decimal (power of ten) multiples or sub-multiples of these. According to Schadow and McDonald, [1] metric units, in general, are those units "defined 'in the spirit' of the metric system, that emerged in late 18th century France and was rapidly adopted by scientists and engineers.
Metric prefixes; Text Symbol Factor or; yotta Y 10 24: 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000: zetta Z 10 21: 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000: exa E 10 18: 1 000 000 000 000 000 000: peta P 10 15: 1 000 000 000 000 000: tera T
Conversions between units in the metric system are defined by their prefixes (for example, 1 kilogram = 1000 grams, 1 milligram = 0.001 grams) and are thus not listed in this article. Exceptions are made if the unit is commonly known by another name (for example, 1 micron = 10 −6 metre).