Conversion of SI-Prefixes

A calculator for the conversion of the different SI-Prefixes. Prefixes in this context are terms placed before the unit, such as kilo- and milli-, which increase or decrease the unit's value by several orders of magnitude. The notation used in this calculator is 10^x, while in text it is 10^x to avoid confusion, as the latter is easier to copy. Please insert one value, the others will be calculated. The number of displayed digits indicates when the e-notation is chosen, for example 1e+12 for 10^12.

Prefixes are familiar from everyday life. Kilogram, centimeter, and milliliter are regularly used in both colloquial speech and scientific discourse. Prefixes with higher powers are less common, but even terms like gigahertz and terabyte are still familiar to many people. The stronger prefixes beyond kilo and milli increase or decrease the powers of ten by a factor of 3. From micro to nano, for example, it is 10^3, and vice versa, 10^3. The difference of such a step is one thousand times or one thousandth, respectively. The highest and lowest prefixes here are yotta and yocto. Even higher ones exist, but they are very rare. Yotta, for example, is a bit higher than the number of particles in a mole.

Practical examples from chemistry of using SI prefixes:
• In a typical chemical experiment, approximately 50 milliliters (mL) of a solution containing 2 micromoles (μmol) of a catalyst can be made. The concentration could then be expressed in micromoles per liter (μmol/L).
• When analyzing proteins, a sample with a mass of 100 picograms (pg) could be used and the results expressed in nanomoles per liter (nmol/L).

Nano (n, 10^-9) is central to nanotechnology and molecular biology, for example, for nanometers (nm) as a unit of measurement for atoms or nanograms (ng) for minute quantities of substances. Pico (p, 10^-12) is used in trace analysis or mass spectrometry for extremely low concentrations such as picograms (pg) or picomoles (pmol). Milli (m, 10^-3) is ubiquitous, for example, in milliliters (mL) for liquids or millimoles (mmol) for amounts of substance. Kilo (k, 10^3) is used, for example, for kilograms (kg) or kilodaltons (kDa) for proteins. Mega (M, 10^6) and giga (G, 10^9) are uncommon in chemistry but are used for very large molecules (megadaltons, MDa) or frequencies (gigahertz, GHz). Dalton is another name for the atomic mass unit u. Tera (T, 10^12) is very rare and is mostly limited to theoretical chemistry or huge molecular complexes.