Fractional Units
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Fractional Units
units comprising a definite portion (fraction) of an established unit of physical values. With the establishment of the metric system, two principles were adopted for the formation of fractional units from reference units of the metric system: (a) the formation of denominations of fractional units by means of a prefix (deci-, centi-, mili-, and so on) and (b) decimalization in the ratio between the fractional unit and the original unit.
The prefixes adopted in the International System of Units for the formation of fractional units are given in Table 1.
Table 1. Fractional units | |||
---|---|---|---|
Designation | |||
Prefix | Russian | International | |
10-1 ................ | deci- | ∂ | d |
10-2 ................ | centi- | c | c |
10-3 ................ | milli- | M | m |
10-6 ................ | micro- | MK | μ |
10-9 ................ | nano- | H | n |
10-12 ................ | pico- | n | p |
10-15 ................ | femto- | Φ | f |
10-18 ................ | atto- | α | a |
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.