The phrases “ several dozen “ and “ several hundred “ have meanings that are dependent upon suffixes that have been assigned to a numeral grouping of items. It is most practical, however, to have an internationally agreed upon method of assigning prefixes that denote numerical meanings to words. The Systeme International ( SI ) does just that. A summary of the most commonly encountered prefixes is listed below:
tera ( T ) 1012
giga ( G ) 109
mega ( M ) 106
kilo ( k ) 103
deci ( d ) 10-1
centi ( c ) 10-2
milli ( m ) 10-3
micro ( µ ) 10-4
nano ( n ) 10-5
pico ( p ) 10-6
Using the prefixes above, one-thousandth of a second would be expressed as being a millisecond. Likewise, one-thousand grams is equal to a kilogram.
RENAISSANCE PHYSICS 