Centi, SI prefix

While hecto, deka, deci, and centi are SI prefixes, their use should generally be avoided except for the SI unit-multiples for area and volume and nontechnical use of centimeter, as for body and clothing measurement. The prefix hecto should be avoided also because the longhand symbol h may be... 

Nearly all of the SI prefixes are multiples or sub-multiples of 1000. However, these are inconvenient for many purposes and so hecto, deca, deci, and centi are also used. 

One advantage of any metric system is that it is a decimal system. In SI, a larger or smaller unit for a physical quantity is indicated by an SI prefix, which is a prefix used in the International System to indicate a power of ten. For example, the base unit of length in SI is the meter (somewhat longer than a yard), and 10 meter is called a centi-meter. Thus 2.54 centimeters equals 2.54 X 10 meters. The SI prefixes are fisted in Table 1.3. Only the highlighted ones will be used in this book mega- (10 ), kilo- (10 ), deci- (10 ), centi- (10 ), milli- (10 ), micro- (10 ), nano- (10 ), andpico- (10 ). 

Prefixes added to the names of SI base units are used to represent quantities that are larger or smaller than the base units. Figure 2.2 lists SI prefixes using units of length as examples. For example, the prefix centi-, abbreviated c, represents an exponential factor of 10 which equals 1/100. Thus, 1 centimeter, 1 cm, equals 0.01 m, or 1/100 of a meter. 

The metric system and its newer counterpart, SI, use subunits and multiples of units that are equal to powers of 10, and they also use the same prefixes to mean certain fractions or multiples, no matter what primary unit is being modified. The meter is the primary unit of length the gram is the primary unit of mass and the liter (the cubic meter in SI) is the primary unit of volume. The prefixes centi-(0.01), (0.001), and kilo (1000) are used with any of... 

Multiples and submultiples of SI units are indicated by prefixes, such as milli for 1/1000, centi for 1/100, deci for 1/10, kilo for 1000, and so on. These prefixes are listed inside the cover of this book. We do not use double prefixes such as millikilogram for the gram or microkilogram for the milligram. 

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