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Système international

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(Redirected from SI)

The système international of units (French for "international system"), more commonly known as the metric system, is a system of standardized measurements or units that are based on the number ten.

Contents

Origin

The metric system was first suggested at the prodigious French school École Polytechnique, supported by well-known mathematician and physicist Joseph Louis Lagrange. They derived the metric unit of length, the meter, from what they considered to be \frac{1}{10^6}th of the distance from a certain point in Europe to the North Pole. It is now known that it is actually approximately \frac{1.16}{10^6}th of the distance.

Prefixes

The majority of the units of the metric system can be increased or decreased by factors of ten using the following system:

  • Yocto - 10^{-24}
  • Zepto - 10^{-21}
  • Atto - 10^{-18}
  • Femto - 10^{-15}
  • Pico - 10^{-12}
  • Nano - 10^{-9}
  • Micro - 10^{-6}
  • Milli - 10^{-3}
  • Centi - 10^{-2}
  • Deci - 10^{-1}
  • No prefix - 10^{0}, or just 1.
  • Deka (or Deca) - 10^{1}
  • Hecto - 10^{2}
  • Kilo - 10^3
  • Mega - 10^6
  • Giga - 10^9
  • Tera - 10^{12}
  • Peta - 10^{15}
  • Exa - 10^{18}
  • Zetta - 10^{21}
  • Yotta - 10^{24}

Types of Measure

The following measures are part of the metric system:

See Also

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