Powers metric prefixes using

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 ). 

The metric measurement system is extremely easy to use, because all the units and equivalents are powers of 10. A kilogram is 1,000 times as big as a gram, and a centimeter is 0.01 as big as a meter. The multiplication and division problems using metric measures are really a piece of cake. When you learn what the different prefixes stand for, you can navigate your way through the metric measurement system. 

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... 

For many years scientists recorded measurements in metric units, which are related decimally, that is, by powers of 10. In 1960, however, the General Conference of Weights and Measures, the international authority on units, proposed a revised metric system called the International System of Units (abbreviated SI, from the French 5ysteme /ntemationale d Unites). Table 1.2 shows the seven SI base units. All other units of measurement can be derived from these base units. Like metric units, SI units are modified in decimal fashion by a series of prefixes, as shown in Table 1.3. We will use both metric and SI units in this book. 

Metric system. The system of units used by scientists in which multiples or subdivisions of units are powers of 10 times the unit, and all such multiples or subdivisions are designated by the same prefix no matter what unit is involved. 

Like all metric systems, SI units have the advantage that prefixes representing various multiples or submultiples may be used to increase or decrease the size of the unit by various powers of 10. Some of the more common prefixes and their symbols are shown in Table 2.2. 

In the metric system, three familiar basic units are the gram, the meter, and the second, and their symbols are g, m, and s, respectively. Their sizes are defined by international agreement to very high precision. Prefixes are used to designate units that are smaller by powers of 10 or larger by powers of 10. For each prefix, a symbol is attached to the unit symbol. A kilogram is 1000 g and its symbol is kg. The commonly encountered prefixes in chemical physics are the following. 

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