John's Metric System Reference Page
I am a believer. I believe that the world would be a better and simpler
place to live if we could all agree on our system of units!
We would also crash fewer spacecraft into Mars...
So, as a public service, I am providing this handy reference page for the
Système Internationale (SI).
Metric System Base Units
These are the only base units recognized by the SI.
All other units (joules, becquerels, watts, coulombs) are derived units.
A comprehensive and handy one-page chart showing the derived units and their
relationships to the base units is available in this pdf file:
derived_units.pdf
Quantity measured |
Unit |
Abbreviation |
length |
meter |
m |
mass |
kilogram |
kg |
time |
second |
s |
electric current |
ampere |
A |
temperature |
kelvin |
K (not °K) |
luminous intensity |
candela |
cd |
amount of substance |
mole |
mol |
Note that K is for kelvin, not "degrees kelvin".
Prefixes for expressing powers
Multiplier |
Prefix |
Symbol |
1024 | yotta | Y |
1021 | zetta | Z |
1018 | exa | E |
1015 | peta | P |
1012 | tera | T |
109 | giga | G |
106 | mega | M |
103 | kilo | k |
102 | hecto | h |
10 | deca | da |
10-1 | deci | d |
10-2 | centi | c |
10-3 | milli | m |
10-6 | micro | μ |
10-9 | nano | n |
10-12 | pico | p |
10-15 | femto | f |
10-18 | atto | a |
10-21 | zepto | z |
10-24 | yocto | y |
Anything greater than 1024 is a "lotta"
and anything less than 10-24 is "notta".
That's a joke, son. That's a joke.
Some Handy Metrication Links
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