Chapter 4 Unit Prefixes
Unit Prefixes
Once you’ve labeled your numbers with proper units, there’s still one more charm to simplify your incantation: unit prefixes. Instead of casting a long spell like \(3.7 \times 10^3\) meters, you can simply say 3.7 kilometers: same magic, less chanting.
Unit prefixes are like verbal shortcuts for your measurements: just a word, and your notation becomes neater, quicker, and easier to wield.
- A “kilo-” means a thousand (\(10^3\)), so instead of saying 3,000 meters, you can simply say 3 kilometers.
- A “nano-” means one-billionth (\(10^{-9}\)), which might be perfect for producing electrical parts while building your robot.
Whether you’re measuring the mass of a star (quettagrams) or the charge on a single electron (attocoulombs), unit prefixes help you speak the right language clearly and concisely.
Mastering prefixes means your scientific spells are never too long, never too vague, but just the right length for whatever tricky situation you find yourself in.
