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Kilo is a decimal unit prefix in the metric system denoting multiplication by one thousand (10 3). 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".
[54] [5] [55] [56] The unit's symbol K is a capital letter, [39] per the SI convention to capitalize symbols of units derived from the name of a person. [57] It is common convention to capitalize Kelvin when referring to Lord Kelvin [5] or the Kelvin scale. [58] The unit symbol K is encoded in Unicode at code point U+212A K KELVIN SIGN.
The units kilogram, gram, milligram, microgram, and smaller are commonly used for measurement of mass. However, megagram, gigagram, and larger are rarely used; tonnes (and kilotonnes, megatonnes, etc.) or scientific notation are used instead. The megagram does not share the risk of confusion that the tonne has with other units with the name "ton".
Here the metric prefix 'kilo-' (symbol 'k') stands for a factor of 1000; thus, 1 km = 1000 m. The SI provides twenty-four metric prefixes that signify decimal powers ranging from 10 −30 to 10 30, the most recent being adopted in 2022.
K is the unit symbol for the kelvin, used to measure thermodynamic temperature (the degree sign is not used with this symbol). K is the chemical symbol for element potassium (from its Latin name kalium). Triangle K. In chess notation, the letter K represents the King (WK for White King, BK for Black King).
The SI prefix for a thousand units is "kilo-", abbreviated to "k"—for instance, a kilogram or "kg" is a thousand grams. This is sometimes extended to non-SI contexts, such as "ka" being used as a shorthand for periods of 1000 years. In computer science, however, "kilo-" is used more loosely to mean 2 to the 10th power (1024).
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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.