Bredhurst Receiving and Transmitting Society

Revision of Prefixes from pico to giga

Prefix

Prefix Name

Scaling

Example

p

pico

 1/1,000,000,000,000

0.000000000001

1pF

 1 pico farad

n

nano

1/1,000,000,000

0.000000001

1nF

 1 nano farad

u

micro

1/1,000,000

0.000001

1uF

 1 micro farad

m

milli

1/1,000

0.001

1mA

 1 milli amp

1

k

kilo

1000

1kThe symbols for ohms

 1 kilo ohms

M

Mega

1,000,000

1MThe symbols for ohms

 1 mega ohms

G

Giga

1,000,000,000

1GHz

 1 giga hertz

As in the ILC for the ALC you need to be able to convert between one prefix and another. NOTE: that the interval between the changes is 1,000 or 103 whichever way you are going !!!

Some students find it difficult to convert down the scale from larger to smaller numbers when it is less than 1  -- perhaps the following will help.

  • 1

  • 0.001

  • 0.000001

  • 0.000000001

  • 0.000000000001

  • Unit
  • milli
  • micro
  • nano
  • pico
  • 1 = 1
  • 1000 milli = 1
  • 1000 micro = 1 milli
  • 1000 nano = 1 micro
  • 1000 pico = 1 nano
Try to see the pattern in the numbers and write out how to convert from one to another in the way you can understand.

Try with the example below. To start with always relate the number to 1
Example

Convert 0.001 micro to nano farads ?

 So relative to 1 farad we have  from above :-

1 micro farad = 0.000001

Thus relative to 1 farad 0.001 micro farads = 0.00000001

we have added the extra 3 zeros  one for the decimal point and the other two from the 001

We now have 8 zeros

from above we know that

relative to 1 farad that 1 nano farad = 0.000000001

that is 8 zeros so 0.001 micro farads = 1 nano farads.

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