We will be using a number of metric prefixes in this course. You need to make sure you are familiar with them.
| prefix | symbol | 10n | decimal | english word |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| kilo | k | 103 | 1000 | thousand |
| milli | m | 10−3 | 0.001 | thousandth |
| micro | µ | 10−6 | 0.000001 | millionth |
| nano | n | 10−9 | 0.000000001 | billionth |
| pico | p | 10−12 | 0.000000000001 | trillionth |
Some basic algebra fuctions are also useful in this course:
You can divide by a number and multiply by the same number on one side of an equation.- $X = 1 \times 10000$ for instance, is the same as $X = (1 \times 1000) \times (1000/1000) $
- Why would you ever want to do that?
We use the prefixes above. You will often find that using, for instance,"milli" and "kilo" together will both make the math easier and give you an answer in the units that you need. - For example, ohms law:
- $ V = .006A \times 10,000 \Omega $ is not as simple to solve as
- $ V = 6mA \times 10k \Omega = 60V $