Metric Prefixes (Positive Exponents) Quiz

Answer: deca- or deka-

The prefix for 10 is derived from the Greek "deka" meaning ten. The symbol for it is "da". There aren't many uses for measurements involving the "deca" prefix, as the kilometer is a more standard use for distance, and liter for volume. An example of the prefix in use would be in the word "decagon", a shape having 10 sides.

Answer: hecto-

"Hecto-" comes from the Greek root "hekaton" meaning hundred. The symbol is "h". Like "deca", this prefix is rarely used. Two examples are the hectopascal (hPa), used to measure atmospheric pressure, and the hectoliter, used to measure liquids in agriculture such as wine and milk.

Answer: kilo-

"Kilo-" comes from the Greek root meaning thousand. Its symbol is "k". There are many uses for this one, notably kilometer, which is the official measurement for expressing geographical distances on land, and kilogram, which is the standard SI unit of mass.

A common misconception is that the kilobyte represents 1,000 bytes. Since computers use base 2 exponentiation, it has been used to represent 1,024 bytes.

Answer: mega-

"Mega-" comes from the Greek root meaning "great". It is the lowest prefix to use a capital letter for its symbol, "M". Some common uses are the megapixel (used for digital cameras), megahertz (frequency of electromagnetic radiation for radio and television broadcasting), and megabyte (used for computing).

Answer: giga-

"Giga-" comes from the Greek word meaning "giant". The symbol is "G". Examples for use are the gigahertz (clock rate of a CPU), gigabit (for the bandwidth of a network link), and gigabyte, commonly used for computer storage capacity.

Answer: tera-

"Tera-" is derived from the Greek root meaning "monster". Its symbol is "T". Examples are the terahertz (electromagnetic waves), terabyte (for data storage). Other uses are for greater measurements: teragram (mass of buildings), teraliter (volume of bodies of water) and terameter (approximately one light-hour).

Answer: peta-

"Peta-" comes from the Greek root meaning five (a quadrillion is 1000 raised to the 5th power). Its symbol is "P". 1 petasecond (one quadrillion seconds) is equal to about 31.7 million years. 1 light-year is equal to about 9.461 petameters.

Answer: exa-

"Exa-" is taken from the Greek "hexa", meaning six (one quintillion is 1000 raised to the 6th power). Its symbol is "E". Google requires more than one exabyte (one quintillion bytes) for Google Mail; 0.43 exaseconds is the approximate age of the universe. 1 exameter is 110 light-years.

Answer: zetta-

"Zetta-" is a corruption of the Latin root "septem-", meaning seven (one sextillion is 1000 to the 7th power). Its symbol is "Z". The mass of the Earth's atmosphere is about 5 zettagrams; the volume of the seawater in all of the Earth's oceans combined is about 1.369 zettaliters; the diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy is estimated at 0.9-1.7 zettameters.

Answer: yotta-

"Yotta-" is a corruption of the Greek root "octo-", meaning eight (a septillion is 1000^8). Its symbol is "Y". The mass of the Earth is 5,972.6 yottagrams; the mass of the oceans is about 1.4 yottagrams; and approximately 880 yottameters is the diameter of the observable universe.