This math skill teaches the extremely large metric unit prefixes such as yotta, zetta, exa, peta, tera, giga, and mega. Each prefix represents a value that is 1000 times larger than the next one, and is typically denoted with a specific letter, often capitalized for larger units. Prefixes are used to measure very large quantities, like bytes in digital storage.
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Extremely large metric unit prefices including yotta, zetta, exa, peta, tera, giga, mega
Test your understanding of extremely large metric unit prefices to yotta by practicing it! Work through the below exercises to use it in practice.
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Let's learn the extremely large metric prefices for yotta, zeta, exa, peta, tera, giga, and mega. This is an extremely large set, where each prefix is 1000 times larger than the next one.
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Each prefix has a letter that is always used to represent it. For the larger units, a capital letter is always used. For example, capital 'P' is peta, which is very large, but a lower case 'p' would be for pico, which is very small.
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We add the prefix to the thing being measured, like bytes for storage. So 1 Petabyte is written with a capital 'P' paired with a capital 'B', and is one million billion, or ten to the 15, bytes
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A simple way to think about these prefices is that they represent multiples of 10 to the 3. Each unit has a power of ten that is three larger than the next one. You can see that scientific notation will come in handy for working with extremely large units.
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A good mneumonic to use is 'young zoe earns pennies to get marbles'