Multiples

symbol	prefix	index	in words	in numbers
T	tera	1012
G	giga	109	one billion	× 1 000 000 000
M	mega	106	one million	× 1 000 000
k	kilo	103	one thousand	× 1 000
d	deci	10-1	one tenth	× .1
c	centi	10-2	one hundredth	× .01
m	milli	10-3	one thousandth	× .001
μ	micro	10-6	one millionth	× .000 001
n	nano	10-9	one billionth	× .000 000 001
p	pico	10-12
f	femto	10-15

Examples

1.5 km = 1500 m = 1.5 × 10³ m
15 mm = 1.5 cm = 0.015 m = 1.5 × 10^-2 m

Notes

The case of the letter used as the symbol is important. Some symbols use an upper case letter, others use a lower case letter.

Example:

A distance of ten miles is equal to 16.094 km. It is wrong to write the symbol for kilometres as 'Km' with a capital 'K'.

The micro symbol 'μ' is the lower case Greek letter 'mu'. Here it is as an image if your browser doesn't show it correctly:

©8886 01-Dec-2003