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A metric prefix is a unit prefix that precedes a basic unit of measure to indicate a multiple or submultiple of the unit. All metric prefixes used today are decadic. 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 ...
The conversion between different SI units for one and the same physical quantity is always through a power of ten. This is why the SI (and metric systems more generally) are called decimal systems of measurement units. [10] The grouping formed by a prefix symbol attached to a unit symbol (e.g. ' km ', ' cm ') constitutes a new inseparable unit ...
Unit prefix. A unit prefix is a specifier or mnemonic that is prepended to units of measurement to indicate multiples or fractions of the units. 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.
The metric system is a decimal -based system of measurement. The current international standard for the metric system is the International System of Units (Système international d'unités or SI), in which all units can be expressed in terms of seven base units: the metre (m), kilogram (kg), second (s), ampere (A), kelvin (K), mole (mol), and ...
t. e. A binary prefix is a unit prefix that indicates a multiple of a unit of measurement by an integer power of two. The most commonly used binary prefixes are kibi (symbol Ki, meaning 210 = 1024 ), mebi (Mi, 2 20 = 1 048 576 ), and gibi (Gi, 2 30 = 1 073 741 824 ). They are most often used in information technology as multipliers of bit and ...
A number of different units (some only of historical interest) are shown and expressed in terms of the corresponding SI unit. 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.
To avoid such unwieldy numbers, people have often repurposed the SI prefixes to mean the nearest power of two, e.g., using the prefix kilo for 2 10 = 1024, mega for 2 20 = 1 048 576, and giga for 2 30 = 1 073 741 824, and so on. For example, a random access memory chip with a capacity of 2 28 bytes would be referred to as a 256-megabyte chip ...
An input unit can be converted to any number of output units—the outputs are specified as a "combination" by separating unit codes with a space (" ") or a plus (" + "). Using a space as a separator does not work if any of the unit codes contains a space. For example, each of the following converts 1.2 km 2 to acres, square yards, and hectares.