Metric Numbers

(See also Metric/Imperial Conversion Charts and Unit Converter)

What is kilo, mega, giga, tera ... ?

In the Metric System there are standard ways to talk about big and small
numbers:

 "kilo" for a thousand,

 "mega" for a million,
 and more ...

Example: A long rope measures one thousand meters

It is easier to say it is 1 kilometer long,

and even easier to write it down as 1 km.

So we used kilo in front of the word meter  to make  "kilometer".

And the abbreviation is "km" (k for kilo and m for meter, put together).

Some more examples:

Example: You put your bag on a set of scales and it shows 2000 grams, we can
call that 2 kilograms, or simply 2 kg.
 Example: Teaspoon

A teaspoon holds 5 thousandths of a liter (51000 of a liter), but it is better to

say "5 milliliters", or write it simply as 5 mL.

"kilo", "mega", "milli" etc are called "prefixes":

Prefix: a word part that can be added to the beginning of another word to
create a new word

So, using the prefix "milli" in front of "liter" creates a new word "milliliter".

Here we list the prefix for commonly used big and small numbers:

Common Big and Small Numbers

Name The Number Prefix Symbol
trillion 1,000,000,000,000 tera T

billion 1,000,000,000 giga G

million 1,000,000 mega M

thousand 1,000 kilo k

hundred 100 hecto h

ten 10 deka da

unit 1    

tenth 0.1 deci d

hundredth 0.01 centi c

thousandth 0.001 milli m

millionth 0.000 001 micro µ

billionth 0.000 000 001 nano n

 trillionth 0.000 000 000 001 pico p

Just remember for large values (each one a thousand times bigger):
"kilo mega giga tera"
and for small values (each one a thousand times smaller):
"milli micro nano pico"

Try To Do Some Yourself!

 How do you refer to a million liters?

 How about one billionth of a meter?

See the bottom of this page for more questions to challenge yourself ...

How Big Are They?

There is a lot of difference between them. Think in terms of time:

A million seconds is about 12 days

A billion seconds is about 32 years

A longer list:

 A thousand seconds is about a quarter of an hour

 A million seconds is about 12 days
 A billion seconds is about 32 years, almost half a lifetime
 A trillion seconds is about 32,000 years (the last Ice Age finished 12,000
years ago)

Much Bigger and Smaller

There are also prefixes for much bigger and smaller numbers:
 Some Very Big, and Very Small
Numbers
Prefi Symb
Name The Number
x ol
Very Big !    
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,0
septillion
00,000
yotta Y

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,0
sextillion
00
zetta Z

quintillion 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 exa E

quadrillion 1,000,000,000,000,000 peta P
  Very Small !    
quadrillion femt
0.000 000 000 000 001 f
th o
quintilliont
h
0.000 000 000 000 000 001 atto a

sextilliont 0.000 000 000 000 000 000

h 001
zepto z

septilliont 0.000 000 000 000 000 000

h 000 001
yocto y

Also see
  Lengths From Very Small
to Very Large

All Big Numbers We Know

Name As a Power of 10 As a Decimal
3
Thousand 10 1,000
 Million 106 1,000,000
9
Billion 10 1,000,000,000
12
Trillion 10 1,000,000,000,000
Quadrillion 1015 etc ...
18
Quintillion 10
Sextillion 1021
Septillion 1024
Octillion 1027
Nonillion 1030
Decillion 1033
Undecillion 1036
Duodecillion 1039
Tredecillion 1042
Quattuordecillion 1045
Quindecillion 1048
Sexdecillion 1051
Septemdecillion 1054
Octodecillion 1057
Novemdecillion 1060
Vigintillion 1063 1 followed by 63 zeros!

And a Googol is 1 followed by one hundred zeros (10100) :

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Then there is the Googolplex. It is 1 followed by  Googol zeros. I can't even

write down the number, because there is not enough matter in the universe to
form all the zeros:

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, ... (Googol number of Zeros)

And a Googolplexian is a 1 followed by  Googolplex  zeros. Wow.

All Small Numbers We Know
Name As a Power of 10 As a Decimal
thousandths 10-3 0.001
-6
millionths 10 0.000 001
billionths 10-9 0.000 000 001
-12
trillionths 10 etc ...
-15
quadrillionths 10  
quintillionths 10-18  
-21
sextillionths 10  
septillionths 10-24  
-27
octillionths 10  
-30
nonillionths 10  
decillionths 10-33  
-36
undecillionths 10  
-39
duodecillionths 10  
tredecillionths 10-42  
-45
quattuordecillionths 10  
quindecillionths 10-48  
-51
sexdecillionths 10  
-54
septemdecillionths 10  
octodecillionths 10-57  
-60
novemdecillionths 10  
-63
vigintillionths 10