Table: Metric Prefixes

International System of Units (SI), Metric Prefixes, and Scientific Milestones

Value	Prefix
1030	quetta (Q)	Standard maximum SI metric range expansion.
1027	ronna (R)	High-order structural scaling threshold.
1024	yotta (Y)	Macro-scale system metric boundary.
1021	zetta (Z)	Large-scale dataset and energetic tracking capacity.
1018	exa (E)	Exaflop computing was the state of the art circa 2022. See Sophia Chen, 2024, Nature magazine: "A day in the life of the world's fastest supercomputer". 0.01 exameters is approximately equal to 1 light-year.
1015	peta (P)	Petaflop computing was the state of the art circa 2018.
1012	tera (T)	The world power use is about 18 terawatts circa 2019 (see Wikipedia: Watt: Terawatt).
109	giga (G)	A gigayear (Gyr) is a billion years.
106	mega (M)	Who wants to be a meganaire?
103	kilo (k)	Standard baseline scientific tracking metric multiplier.
102	hecto (h)	As far as I know only used, sort of, for hectare (ha): 1 ha = 100 × 100 = 104 m2 = (1/100) km2
101	deca (da)	Used now for decameter asteroids.
100	[Base Unit]	The basic unit case: i.e., the NO prefix case.
10-1	deci (d)	Only commonly used for decibels.
10	centi (c)	Standard small metric distance baseline unit scaling.
10-3	milli (m)	Never confuse mJ (millijoules) and MJ (megajoules).
10-6	micro (μ)	The Greek letter μ (mu).
10-9	nano (n)	Nanotechnology is very hot circa 2013.
10-12	pico (p)	Atomic and subatomic physical mapping boundary.
10-15	femto (f)	Used for ultrashort pulse lasers (AKA femtosecond lasers).
10-18	atto (a)	High-speed physical state structural transition tracking scale.
10-21	zepto (z)	Sub-atomic threshold monitoring increments.
10-24	yocto (y)	Quantum state energy observation spectrum bounds.
10-27	ronto (r)	Ultra-low theoretical physical structural tracking constant.
10-30	quecto (q)	Minimum modern recognized structural system metric threshold.

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Notes:

1. As always, whenever we observe tables, the point is NOT to try to memorize them which is impossible, but to contemplate what they mean while observing them.
2. Some of the metric prefixes are rarely used like atto. But as technology advances, one often finds them turning up in specialized fields: e.g., nanotechnology uses nano- because supposedly the devices are at the nanometer scale: actually they are often at the hundreds of nanometer scale, but that doesn't sound as grant-attractive.
3. Rumor has it that groucho (10 to the power 33) and harpo (10 to the power -33) will soon be added to the metric prefixes.
4. See also Wikipedia: Metric prefix: List of SI prefixes.