Nano-
This article is about the SI prefix. For other uses, see Nano (disambiguation).
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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 one meter (3.3 feet) wide.[1]
- 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". See nanoscopic scale.
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- ↑ The metric system was introduced in 1795 with several metric prefixes, of which, however, only six were adopted as SI prefixes by the 11th CGPM conference in 1960, whereas myria (104) as well as double and demi were not adopted. In 1873, micro and mega were recommended by the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The other dates relate to recognition by a resolution of the CGPM.
References
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