SI Prefixes Quiz: Test Your Knowledge Of Metric Scales

Concept: prefix values. kilo- means a thousand (10³). It’s common for kilometres (km) and kilograms (kg).

Concept: milli- meaning. milli- means one thousandth (10⁻³). For example, 1 mm = 0.001 m.

Concept: micro symbol. micro- uses the Greek letter µ. It represents 10⁻⁶.

Concept: kilo conversion. “kilo-” is 10³, so a kilometre is 10³ metres. That is 1000 m.

Concept: milli conversion. milli- is 10⁻³. So 1 mm = 10⁻³ m = 0.001 m.

Concept: prefix comparison. milli- is 10⁻³, so 1 mg = 0.001 g. Therefore 1 g is larger.

Concept: metres to kilometres. Divide by 1000 because 1 km = 1000 m. So 2500 m = 2.5 km.

Concept: nano meaning. nano- is 10⁻⁹. It’s used for very small quantities like nanometres (nm).

Concept: centi conversion. centi- is 10⁻². So 1 cm = 10⁻² m = 0.01 m.

Concept: prefix symbol recognition. µ is micro- (10⁻⁶), so µm is micrometre. It is one-millionth of a metre.

Concept: giga meaning. giga- uses capital G and represents 10⁹. It’s common in gigawatts (GW) and gigahertz (GHz).

Concept: correct prefix mapping. kilo is 10³. milli is 10⁻³, micro is 10⁻⁶, and nano is 10⁻⁹.

Concept: grams to kilograms. 10³ g = 1 kg, so 7.2 × 10³ g = 7.2 kg. This is a common kilo conversion.

Concept: micro vs nano. micro is 10⁻⁶ and nano is 10⁻⁹. Since 10⁻⁹ is smaller, 1 nf is smaller than 1 µf.

Concept: micro conversion. micro- means 10⁻⁶. So 1 µs = 10⁻⁶ seconds.

Concept: mega prefix. mega- is 10⁶ and uses capital M. This is different from milli- (m), which is 10⁻³.

Concept: scientific notation reading. 10⁻² means divide by 100. So 3.0 × 10⁻² m = 0.03 m.

Concept: case sensitivity in prefixes. milli- is lowercase m (10⁻³). Capital M is mega- (10⁶), which is a huge difference.

Concept: correct symbol format. kilometre is “km” (lowercase k). “K” is used for Kelvin, so “km” is not correct SI notation.

Concept: converting to milli-. 1 ma = 10⁻³ a, so multiply amps by 1000 to get ma. 0.0045 a × 1000 = 4.5 ma.