# Systme international

(Redirected from SI)

The système international of units (French for "international system"), more commonly known as the metric system, is a system of standardized measurements or units that are based on the number ten.

## Origin

The metric system was first suggested at the prodigious French school École Polytechnique, supported by well-known mathematician and physicist Joseph Louis Lagrange. They derived the metric unit of length, the meter, from what they considered to be $\frac{1}{10^6}$th of the distance from a certain point in Europe to the North Pole. It is now known that it is actually approximately $\frac{1.16}{10^6}$th of the distance.

## Prefixes

The majority of the units of the metric system can be increased or decreased by factors of ten using the following system:

• Yocto - $10^{-24}$
• Zepto - $10^{-21}$
• Atto - $10^{-18}$
• Femto - $10^{-15}$
• Pico - $10^{-12}$
• Nano - $10^{-9}$
• Micro - $10^{-6}$
• Milli - $10^{-3}$
• Centi - $10^{-2}$
• Deci - $10^{-1}$
• No prefix - $10^{0}$, or just $1$.
• Deka (or Deca) - $10^{1}$
• Hecto - $10^{2}$
• Kilo - $10^3$
• Mega - $10^6$
• Giga - $10^9$
• Tera - $10^{12}$
• Peta - $10^{15}$
• Exa - $10^{18}$
• Zetta - $10^{21}$
• Yotta - $10^{24}$

## Types of Measure

The following measures are part of the metric system:

## See Also

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