Reference

orders(7)

orders of magnitude

NAME

orders – orders of magnitude

DESCRIPTION

The following table lists common multiples of bytes.

NamePrefixPower of 2Power of 10
KilobytekB2^1010^3
MegabyteMB2^2010^6
GigabyteGB2^3010^9
TerabyteTB2^4010^12
PetabytePB2^5010^15
ExabyteEB2^6010^18
ZettabyteZB2^7010^21
YottabyteYB2^8010^24
RonnabyteRB2^9010^27
QuettabyteQB2^10010^30

The following table lists common bit rates as a power of ten.

NamePrefixBit per secondByte per second
Bit per secondbit/s10.125
Byte per secondB/s81
Kilobit per secondkbit/s10^3125
Kilobyte per secondkB/s8 * 10^31000
Megabit per secondMbit/s10^6125000
Megabyte per secondMB/s8 * 10^61000000
Gigabit per secondGbit/s10^9125000000
Gigabyte per secondGB/s8 * 10^91000000000
Terabit per secondTbit/s10^12125000000000
Terabyte per secondTB/s8 * 10^121000000000000

The following table lists common orders of magnitude as a power of ten.

NameOrderPrefixSymbolDecimal
Nonillionth10^-30quectoq0.000000000000000000000000000001
Octillionth10^-27rontor0.000000000000000000000000001
Septillionth10^-24yoctoy0.000000000000000000000001
Sextillionth10^-21zeptoz0.000000000000000000001
Quintillionth10^-18attoa0.000000000000000001
Quadrillionth10^-15femtof0.000000000000001
Trillionth10^-12picop0.000000000001
Billionth10^-9nanon0.000000001
Millionth10^-6micromu0.000001
Thousandth10^-3millim0.001
Hundredth10^-2centic0.01
Tenth10^-1decid0.1
One10^0--1
Ten10^1decada10
Hundred10^2hectoh100
Thousand10^3kilok1000
Million10^6megaM1000000
Billion10^9gigaG1000000000
Trillion10^12teraT1000000000000
Quadrillion10^15petaP1000000000000000
Quintillion10^18exaE1000000000000000000
Sextillion10^21zettaZ1000000000000000000000
Septillion10^24yottaY1000000000000000000000000
Octillion10^27ronnaR1000000000000000000000000000
Nonillion10^30quettaQ1000000000000000000000000000000

SEE ALSO

units(1), number(6)

STANDARDS

There have been various attempts to standardize the set of binary prefixes. Organizations such as International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) have proposed new prefixes such as “kibi”, “mebi”, “gibi”, and “yobi”, but the adoption has been slow at best.

AUTHORS

This manual page was written by Jukka Ruohonen ⟨[email protected]⟩.

History