Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Multiples of thousands are occasionally represented by replacing their last three zeros with the letter "K" or "k": for instance, writing "$30k" for $30 000 or denoting the Y2K computer bug of the year 2000. A thousand units of currency, especially dollars or pounds, are colloquially called a grand. In the United States, this is sometimes ...
It is used in the International System of Units, where it has the symbol k, in lowercase. The prefix kilo is derived from the Greek word χίλιοι ( chilioi ), meaning "thousand". In 19th century English it was sometimes spelled chilio, in line with a puristic opinion by Thomas Young .
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 ...
Units of various sizes are commonly formed by the use of such prefixes. The prefixes of the metric system, such as kilo and milli, represent multiplication by positive or negative powers of ten. In information technology it is common to use binary prefixes, which are based on powers of two. Historically, many prefixes have been used or proposed ...
A significant characteristic of the metric system is its use of decimal multiples – powers of 10. For example, a length that is significantly longer or shorter than 1 metre can be represented in units that are a power of 10 or 1000 metres. This differs from many older systems in which the ratio of different units varied.
So too are the thousands, with the number of thousands followed by the word "thousand". The number one thousand may be written 1 000 or 1000 or 1,000; larger numbers are written for example 10 000 or 10,000 for ease of reading. European languages that use the comma as a decimal separator may correspondingly use the period as a thousands separator.
In the Netherlands and Dutch-speaking Belgium, the points thousands separator is used, and is preferred for currency amounts, but the space is recommended by some style guides, mostly in technical writing. [60] In Estonia, currency numbers often use a dot "." as the decimal separator, and a space as a thousands separator. This is most visible ...
kyr was formerly common in some English language works, especially in geology and astronomy, for the unit of 1,000 years or millennium. The "k" is the unit prefix for kilo-or thousand with the suffix "yr" simply an abbreviation for "year". Occasionally, the "k" is shown in upper case, as in "100 Kyr"; this is an incorrect usage. "kyr" itself is ...