Quetta-

This redirect is about the SI prefix. For the city in Pakistan, see Quetta. For other uses, see Quetta- (disambiguation).

Quetta is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting multiplication by 10³⁰ or 1000000000000000000000000000000 (one nonillion). It is represented by the letter Q. It was approved by the 27th meeting of the General Conference on Weights and Measures in 2022.

Inclusion

The CGPM adopted the prefix quetta- in addition to ronna-, ronto-, and quecto- in their 27th meeting. The reasons for adoption considered by the CGPM are

• "the essential role of the International System of Units (SI) in providing confidence in the

accuracy and global comparability of measurements needed for international trade, manufacturing, human health and safety, protection of the environment, global climate studies and scientific research,"

• "the benefits of encouraging the use of SI units by providing new SI prefixes for scientific

communities that depend on measurements that are not covered by the current range,"

• "the needs of data science in the near future to express quantities of digital information

using orders of magnitude in excess of 10²⁴,"

• "the importance of timely action to prevent unofficial prefix names being de facto adopted

in other communities."

Usage examples

• The mass of the Sun is around 1988.5 Qg.
• The mass of Jupiter is around 1.898 Qg.

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

• Metric prefix

External links

• BIPM website