Math Prefixes

Page 2

This text is meant to accompany class discussions. It is not everything there is to know about uniform circular motion. It is meant as a prep for class.

Click for the questions that go with this reading

Common Math Prefixes

Common math prefixes we use in this course.

General Word	Number	power of 10	Letter Abbreviation	Abbreviation's Word
Billions	1,000,000,000	x 10⁹	G	Giga
Million	1,000,000	x 10⁶	M	Mega
Thousands	1,000	x 10³	k	kilo
	1	x 10⁰
Hundredth	0.01	x 10^-2	c	centi
Thousandths	0.001	x 10^-3	m	milli
Millionths	0.000 001	x 10^–6	µ	micro
Billionths	0.000 000 001	x 10^–9	n	nano
"µ" is the Greek letter pronounced, "mu," (rhymes with "pugh.")

(Memorize this chart.)

Scientists and mathematicians love shortcuts. Instead of writing powers of 10 they will use the letter abbreviation for that power. 4 kilometers is 4000 meters. In scientific notion this is 4 x 10³ m. However, scientists and mathematicians write this using a shortcut that makes it "4 km", where the letter "k" replaces the "10³." When a letter that is a know math prefix is between a number and unit, it is replacing the power of ten. When doing math you need to replace this letter with its power of 10.

Example

Notice how the letter math symbols are replaced with the corresponding powers of ten.

Question
Solution on Paper
Video Solution

Convert 983 kT to T.

This is what you paper would look like when showing your work.

Content 3

Question
Solution on Paper
Video Solution

Convert 4130 cH to kH.

This is what you work would look like when showing your steps.

by Tony Wayne ...(If you are a teacher, please feel free to use these resources in your teaching.)

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