METRIC PREFIXES AND SYMBOLS NAME:______

I INTRODUCTION: As you know, a PREFIX is a word, when added to the start of another word, that changes the meaning of that word. Metric prefixes change the value of the unit of measure they precede.

A SYMBOL is a letter or group of letters that stands for a word or name. Since the metric system is used in every country of the world, metric symbols are an international language-- using the correct symbol (including capital and lower case letters) is very important.

The following chart shows the metric prefixes, values and symbols.

PREFIX SYMBOL VALUE

tera T 1,000,000,000,000 (trillion)

giga G 1,000,000,000 (billion)

mega M 1,000,000 (million)

kilo k 1,000 (thousand)

hecto h 100 (hundred)

deka da 10 (ten)

1

deci d 0.1 (one-tenth)

centi c 0.01 (one hundredth)

milli m 0.001 (one thousandth)

micro µ 0.000001 (one millionth)

nano n 0.000000001 (one billionth)

pico p 0.000000000001 (one trillionth)

II PRACTICING WITH PREFIXES: Place the prefix in the blank that best completes the phrase.

1. One one-hundredth of a dollar would be called one ______buck.

2. What symbol might I use to abbreviate a trillion stars? ______

3. If we strictly translated, a millipede (an insect) would have how many legs?______

4. You have heard of an insect nicknamed a thousand-legger. To use our prefixes correctly, what should we call this bug?

______

5. If you wanted to insult your little brother, would it be worse to call him a a decibrain, a millibrain, or a nanobrain? (circle one)

6. Would you rather have dekabucks, kilobucks, or gigabucks? (circle one)

7. What is the word (a real word, not a made up one) that would equal one dekayear?

8. Why does it make sense that the word, “gigantic” would start with the prefix that it does?

9. If you were hit in the head with one microwatermellon, do you think it would hurt? (µ)

10. If your sister called you “Mbutt,” do you think this would be a compliment?why?

11. Would this be a blizzard?: m

12. Why does the term, “microscope” make sense?

13. Could you eat h -or- d ?

14. Avoiding the topics used above, create two new words using our metric prefixes:

______

______

15. Write the symbols for the following:

one billion inches: ______

one hundred pounds: ______

one-tenth of a foot: ______