Reef Chemistry Question of the Day #49 Micro unit

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Reef Chemistry Question of the Day #49

The prefix “micro†on a unit of measure means which of the following?


A. One-millionth of the unit
B. One-thousandth of the unit
C. One-hundredth of the unit
D. One thousand of the units

Good luck!



















.

 

[H2O]

A. micro = One milionth

 

[beaslbob]

a

(just a wild guess)

 

[DFW]

A!!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Anyone else?

 

[cope413]

A. That's not a chem question though...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

A. That's not a chem question though...

If I made it micromoles, is that chemistry enough for you?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

And the answer is...A. One-millionth of the unit

Congratulations to everyone!

This is the breakdown of unit prefixes used in chemistry from wikipedia. Micro is highlighted in red.

FWIW, chemists rarely use anything higher than peta, or lower than atto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix



Prefix.....Symbol. 1000m .........10n ..............................................Decimal...............................English word..............Since[n 1

yotta	Y	10008	1024	1000000000000000000000000	septillion	quadrillion	1991
zetta	Z	10007	1021	1000000000000000000000	sextillion	thousand trillion	1991
exa	E	10006	1018	1000000000000000000	quintillion	trillion	1975
peta	P	10005	1015	1000000000000000	quadrillion	thousand billion	1975
tera	T	10004	1012	1000000000000	trillion	billion	1960
giga	G	10003	109	1000000000	billion	thousand million	1960
mega	M	10002	106	1000000	million	1960
kilo	k	10001	103	1000	thousand	1795
hecto	h	10002/3	102	100	hundred	1795
deca	da	10001/3	101	10	ten	1795
	10000	100	1	one	–
deci	d	1000−1/3	10−1	0.1	tenth	1795
centi	c	1000−2/3	10−2	0.01	hundredth	1795
milli	m	1000−1	10−3	0.001	thousandth	1795
micro	μ	1000−2	10−6	0.000001	millionth	1960
nano	n	1000−3	10−9	0.000000001	billionth	thousand millionth	1960
pico	p	1000−4	10−12	0.000000000001	trillionth	billionth	1960
femto	f	1000−5	10−15	0.000000000000001	quadrillionth	thousand billionth	1964
atto	a	1000−6	10−18	0.000000000000000001	quintillionth	trillionth	1964
zepto	z	1000−7	10−21	0.000000000000000000001	sextillionth	thousand trillionth	1991
yocto	y	1000−8	10−24	0.000000000000000000000001	septillionth	quadrillionth	1991
Jump up^ The metric system was introduced in 1795 with six prefixes. The other dates relate to recognition by a resolution of the CGPM.