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Using Units Flashcards

All 6 cards in this deck

What does the prefix milli (m) mean?

One thousandth, 10−310^{-3}.
e.g. 1 mm = 10−310^{-3} m

What does the prefix micro (µ) mean?

One millionth, 10−610^{-6}.
e.g. 1 µm = 10−610^{-6} m

What does the prefix nano (n) mean?

One thousand-millionth, 10−910^{-9}.
e.g. 1 nm = 10−910^{-9} m

What does the prefix pico (p) mean?

10−1210^{-12} (one million-millionth).
e.g. 1 pm = 10−1210^{-12} m

True or false? 6000 µm written in standard form is 6×10−36 \times 10^{-3} µm.

False. It is 6×1036 \times 10^{3} µm — a negative power is only used for numbers smaller than 1.

When should an estimate be used instead of an exact measurement or count?

When measuring or counting everything exactly is impractical, e.g. counting the cells in one field of view and scaling up to estimate the total.