Nano-

This article is about the SI prefix. For other uses, see Nano (disambiguation).

Nano (symbol n) is a unit prefix meaning "one billionth". Used primarily with the metric system, this prefix denotes a factor of 10⁻⁹ or 0.000000001. It is frequently encountered in science and electronics for prefixing units of time and length.

Examples

• One nanometer is about the length that a fingernail grows in one second.
• Three gold atoms lined up are about one nanometer long.
• If a toy marble were scaled down to one nanometer wide, Earth would scale to about 1 meter (3.3 ft) wide.
• One nanosecond is about the time required for light to travel 30 cm in air, or 20 cm in an optical fiber.

The prefix derives from the Greek νᾶνος (Latin nanus), meaning "dwarf". The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) officially endorsed the usage of nano as a standard prefix in 1960.

When used as a prefix for something other than a unit of measure (as for example in words like "nanoscience"), nano refers to nanotechnology, or means "on a scale of nanometres".

SI prefixes

Prefix		Base 10	Decimal	Adoption
Name	Symbol
quetta	Q	1030	1000000000000000000000000000000	2022
ronna	R	1027	1000000000000000000000000000
yotta	Y	1024	1000000000000000000000000	1991
zetta	Z	1021	1000000000000000000000
exa	E	1018	1000000000000000000	1975
peta	P	1015	1000000000000000
tera	T	1012	1000000000000	1960
giga	G	109	1000000000
mega	M	106	1000000	1873
kilo	k	103	1000	1795
hecto	h	102	100
deca	da	101	10
—	—	100	1	—
deci	d	10−1	0.1	1795
centi	c	10−2	0.01
milli	m	10−3	0.001
micro	μ	10−6	0.000001	1873
nano	n	10−9	0.000000001	1960
pico	p	10−12	0.000000000001
femto	f	10−15	0.000000000000001	1964
atto	a	10−18	0.000000000000000001
zepto	z	10−21	0.000000000000000000001	1991
yocto	y	10−24	0.000000000000000000000001
ronto	r	10−27	0.000000000000000000000000001	2022
quecto	q	10−30	0.000000000000000000000000000001
Notes

See also

• nanoscopic scale
• RKM code