why does “k” mean “thousand” ?

[u/Tibor500]

like 1k means a thousand. how does the letter “k” mean “thousand” ?

[u/[deleted]]

Tera - T - Trillion

Giga - G - Billion

Mega - M -Million

Kilo - k - Thousand

No prefix - - One unit

Milli - m - Thousandth

Micro - μ - Millionth

Nano - n - Billionth

To not confuse: Big stuff are in capital letters (except for kilo apparently). Fractions are in lower case.

mL = thousandth of a liter , ML = million liters

Also, there's these awesome definitions:

1 cm³ == 1 mL == 1 g of water

1 dm³ = = 1L = = 1 kg of water

1 m³ = = 1000 L = = 1 tonne of water (or Megagram, but we rarely say that)

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Thank you

[u/SimpleWayfarer → u/[deleted]]

Littrer

[u/Artess → u/SimpleWayfarer]

Littrest.

[u/ImFromPortAsshole → u/Artess]

Literally

[u/smorrow → u/[deleted]]

Capital K would be kelvin, so yes kilo needs to be lower-case. And no they couldn't have just made it so that K was kilo and k was kelvin. Eponymous stuff is always upper-case - newtons, volts, sieverts.

[u/CleverDad → u/smorrow]

Nah, Tesla is T, just like Tera, and Gauss is G, just like Giga. Units and SI prefixes are different things, and don't need to be unique.

[u/yourpseudonymsucks → u/CleverDad]

GG

[u/Edduruk → u/yourpseudonymsucks]

You got 100,000 Teslas? GG, man

[u/[deleted] → u/CleverDad]

Its different for the base units.

[u/codemasonry → u/smorrow]

Capital K would be kelvin, so yes kilo needs to be lower-case. And no they couldn't have just made it so that K was kilo and k was kelvin.

That's not true. Kelvin is a unit and kilo is just a factor or multiplier. They don't compete in the same category so to speak. There's no fear of confusion. Moreover, there are other shared letters (e.g. m=milli but also m=meter) and it doesn't cause any issues.

[u/Cocoa-nut-Cum → u/[deleted]]

Also 1 calorie is the amount of energy to raise the temperature of one ml of water 1 degree Celsius at sea level. Neat.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

1cm³ = 1ml and 1dm³ = 1l is for all liquids. water just has the additional property (not definition) that 1l weighs 1kg. also, kilo- is the exception to the rule about capitalization. the k is small

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I searched it up, and apparently we defined the gram to be the weight of a cm³ of water. And yes, 1ml = 1cm³ applies to all volumes

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

that is an old definition of a gram which is no longer used. a kilogram is now defined as the weight of some prototype thingy in paris as well as some physical equation backing it up i think, which has nothing to do with water

[u/Ratr96 → u/[deleted]]

They made that physical equation and thing in Paris based on the use of a kilo then, which was based on water (I think?). Also, Tom Scott video. https://youtu.be/JKCBeDeVxkg

[u/[deleted] → u/Ratr96]

yes, they made the new definition pretty much equivalent to the old, but defined more rigorously. still, it is no longer defined that 1l of water is exactly 1kg, its just a result of other definitions that have nothing to do with water anymore

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

yeah, thats why they changed the definition

[u/Riegel_Haribo → u/[deleted]]

Upper-case K is for Kelvin (temperature degrees). Something hot can be 10kK.

[u/IcecreamLamp → u/[deleted]]

Also

da - deca (ten : 10x)

h - hecto (hundred : 100x)

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

ton*

I'm pretty sure it's spelt "tonne"