Prefixes

Last updated

Aug 29, 2023
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- Physical Quantities
- SI Units

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Prefixes for Decimal Multiples and Submultiples

Prefixes are often used for decimal multiples and submultiples of units. Often, the symbols are used together with units. For example, MeV means million electron volts, units of energy. To memorize these prefixes is not something you will enjoy, but if you do know them by heart, you will appreciate the quantity when you encounter them in your reading. You can come back here to check them in case you forgot. The table is arranged in a symmetric fashion for convenience of comparison. Note the increments or decrements by thousand 10⁺³ or 10^-3 are used aside from hecto (centi) and deca (deci).

Multiple	Name	Abbreviation		Name	Multiple
10⁺²⁴	yotta	Y	y	yocto	10^-24
10⁺²¹	zetta	Z	z	zepto	10^-21
10⁺¹⁸	exa	E	a	atto	10^-18
10⁺¹⁵	peta	P	f	femto	10^-15
10⁺¹²	tera	T	p	pico	10^-12
10⁺⁹	giga	G	n	nano	10^-9
10⁺⁶	mega	M	m	micro	10^-6
10⁺³	kilo	k	m	milli	10^-3
10⁺²	hecto	h	c	centi	10^-2
10⁺¹	deca	da	d	deci	10^-1

When you want to express some large or small quantities, you may also find these prefixes useful.

Greek Prefixes

Greek prefixes are often used for naming compounds. You will need the prefixes in order to give a proper name of many compounds. You also need to know them to figure out the formula from their names. The common prefixes are given in this Table.

Note that some of the prefixes may change slightly when they are applied to the names. Some of the examples show the variations.

Note also that some names are given using other conventions. For example, $\ce{P4O6}$ and $\ce{P4O10}$ are called phosphorus trioxide and phosphorus pentoxide respectively. These are given according to their empirical formulas.

Prefix	Number	Example
mono-	1	monoatomic ions
bi- or di-	2	bicarbonate dichloro-
tri-	3	tridentate ligand trinitrotoluene
tetra-	4	ethylenediamine- tetraacetate tetraethyl lead
penta-	5	bromine pentafluoride
hexa-	6	hexachlorobenzene
hepta-	7	n-heptane
octa-	8	iso-octane
nona-	9	nanosecond
deca-	10	decimal

Contributors and Attributions

Chung (Peter) Chieh (Professor Emeritus, Chemistry @ University of Waterloo)

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Prefixes for Decimal Multiples and Submultiples

Greek Prefixes

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