View Full Version : Prefix notation.
 
 tme_tme
Jan 27, 2009, 11:24 PM
70,000,000,000 newton's 
 
Rewrite in prefix notation.
 
Is the answer this 70n (nano) N (newtons)?
 ebaines
Jan 28, 2009, 09:06 AM
is the answer this 70n (nano) N (newtons)?
 
No - "nano" means 1 billionth.  That is, 10^{-9} .  You want the notation for billion:  10 ^{+9} .  Here's a list of prefixes that will help you:
 
SI prefix - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix)
 Capuchin
Jan 28, 2009, 09:47 AM
I suppose this is actually quite tricky when you first come to learn it. One way of remembering is that "small" prefixes often have -i or -o on the end, and big prefixes are normally -a, the only exception being kilo- (and hecto- but that is rarely used).
 
Hopefully that will help you get it round the right way :)