CHEM1001 Lecture 15: Chem 15
Document Summary
Now that we know about the si system and what it provides to the scientist and engineer, we can examine some aspects of actual measurement. The si system utilizes a standard system of prefixes to the basic units that allow them to be more relevant to and descriptive of relative magnitude. When reading about chemical kinetics, you may encounter the terms ms or ns, meaning. Briefly review the basic si units before you study the prefixes. A prefix may be used to identify multiples of the original unit or fractions of the original unit. Kilo- denotes a multiple of a thousand, so there are one thousand meters in a kilometer. Milli- denotes a thousandth; therefore, there are one thousand millimeters in a meter. The prefixes redefine the measurement as either a multiple or a fraction of the basic unit. Keep in mind that prefixes should never be combined.
