SI multipliers

SI Multipliers

SI multipliers (prefixes) are used to express very large or very small numbers in a more convenient form using powers of ten.

Common SI Prefixes

Larger than 1

• $Tera (T) = 10¹² = :highlight[1 000 000 000 000]$
• $Giga (G) = 10⁹ = :highlight[1 000 000 000]$
• $Mega (M) = 10⁶ = :highlight[1 000 000]$
• $Kilo (k) = 10³ = :highlight[1 000]$
• $Hecto (h) = 10² = :highlight[100]$
• $Deca (da) = 10¹ = :highlight[10]$

Smaller than 1

• $Deci (d) = 10⁻¹ = :highlight[0.1]$
• $Centi (c) = 10⁻² = :highlight[0.01]$
• $Milli (m) = 10⁻³ = :highlight[0.001]$
• $Micro (μ) = 10⁻⁶ = :highlight[0.000 001]$
• $Nano (n) = 10⁻⁹ = :highlight[0.000 000 001]$
• $Pico (p) = 10⁻¹² = :highlight[0.000 000 000 001]$
• $Femto (f) = 10⁻¹⁵ = :highlight[0.000 000 000 000 001]$

Key Points to Remember

• Multipliers make numbers easier to work with by reducing the need for long strings of zeros.
• The exponent tells you how many places to move the decimal point (positive = move right, negative = move left).
• In computing, prefixes like kilo (k), mega (M), and giga (G) are sometimes based on powers of 2 instead of 10 $(e.g., :highlight[1 kilobyte = 1024 bytes]).$