Prefixes

It is often hard to work with powers of 10. A light year is for exampleand it is more natural to work in light years instead of this number. Sometimes a unit is directly translated into powers of 10, so for example 1 kilogram equals 1000 grams =grams. The number 1000 is given the prefix kilo. There are a range of suffixes which makes taking of large or small quantities easier and more natural. Some are shown in the table.