1. Matter and Measurements
Metric Prefixes
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Oftentimes, when dealing with calculations, we'll run into contact with the metric prefixes. Now, metric prefixes can be seen as modifiers that are multiples of 10. And we're going to say when dealing with these metric prefixes, we're going to have this chart here. This metric prefix multipliers chart ranges from 10 to the 12 to 10 to the negative 12. Now talk to your professor. Make sure you don't have to know anything beyond this point. For this level of chemistry, this is a pretty thorough range to deal with. But there, of course, there are terms 10 to the negative 15, 10 to the positive 15. Well, those are usually reserved for higher levels of chemistry. Now 10 to the 12 is called terra. Terra uses the variable of t, capital t. 10 to the 9 is giga, which is capital g. Mega is capital m, and it's 10 to the 6. 10 to the 3 is kilo. Now, at this point we're gonna be dealing with lowercase letters, so lowercase k. You might have heard of kilometer. So kilometer has kilo in it. It's metric prefix label. 10 to the 2 is hecto, which is h. Now 10 to the 1 is related to deka, which is d a. Here is when we're dealing with our base unit, So our base unit like liters or seconds. We're gonna say here this is not a metric prefix, this is just the base, our base unit. Then we have deci. Dep and deci are pretty similar. To differentiate them, deci is d. Then we're gonna have centi, which is 10 to the negative 2. So that's gonna be c. You might have heard of centimeters. Then we have 10 to the negative 3 which is milli, milliliters. Then 10 to the negative 6 is micro. Micro is an interesting symbol, looks like this. 10 to the negative 9 is nano, which is lowercase n, and then 10 to the negative 12 is pico, which is p. Now this is a lot of terms. This is a lot of symbols, but we have our first memory tool. So when we have memory tools, either just simple phrases sometimes or images that'll help us memorize a specific chemistry related topic. Here in this case, this memory tool help us memorize the order for the metric prefix multipliers. Now we have King Henry from history, King Henry who kept on divorcing his wives until he they wanted them to compare him a son. And with King Henry, we have a trusty, memory tool to help us memorize the order of the metric prefixes. So we're gonna say the great monarch, King Henry's daughter Barbara, drinks chocolate milk until 9 pm. So we can see here that each one of these highlighted letters, each one of these highlighted letters here, corresponds to these metric prefix multipliers. And this memory tool also ranges from 10 to the 12, and it decreases all the way down to 10 to the negative 12 over here. So just remember, your metric prefixes for us, we're gonna range from 10 to 12 to 10 to the negative 12. Consult with your professor to make sure that that's the range all you that that you need to know in terms of this topic. And in terms of memorizing, rely on this memory tool. It'll help you remember the order that each metric prefix multiplier, comes into play when it comes to this chart. Now that we've talked about the general idea of metric prefixes and this range, move on to the next video, and let's see how we can apply them to base units.
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