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

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

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" (nanoscale).

SI prefixes

• v
• t
• e

Prefix		Base 10	Decimal	Adoption [nb 1]
Name	Symbol
quetta	Q	1030	1000000000000000000000000000000	2022[2]
ronna	R	1027	1000000000000000000000000000
yotta	Y	1024	1000000000000000000000000	1991
zetta	Z	1021	1000000000000000000000
exa	E	1018	1000000000000000000	1975[3]
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[2]
quecto	q	10−30	0.000000000000000000000000000001
Notes Prefixes adopted before 1960 already existed before SI. The introduction of the CGS system was in 1873.

Nanometre

This section is an excerpt from Nanometre.[edit]

One nanometric carbon nanotube, photographed with scanning tunneling microscope

Different lengths as in respect to the electromagnetic spectrum, measured by the metre and its derived scales. The nanometre is often used to express dimensions on an atomic scale and mostly in the molecular scale.

The nanometre (international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: nm), or nanometer (American spelling), is a unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one billionth (short scale) or one thousand million (long scale) of a meter (0.000000001 m) and to 1000 picometres. One nanometre can be expressed in scientific notation as 1 × 10⁻⁹ m and as ⁠1/1000000000⁠ m.

X-rays have a wavelength ranging from the size of 0.01 nm to 10 nm.

Human fingernails grow at approximately one nanometer per second.^[4]

Nanosecond

This section is an excerpt from Nanosecond.[edit]

A nanosecond (ns) is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one billionth of a second, that is, ⁠1/1000000000⁠ of a second, or 10⁻⁹ seconds.

The term combines the SI prefix nano- indicating a 1 billionth submultiple of an SI unit (e.g. nanogram, nanometre, etc.) and second, the primary unit of time in the SI.

A nanosecond is to one second, as one second is to approximately 31.69 years.

A nanosecond is equal to 1000 picoseconds or ⁠1/1000⁠ microsecond. Time units ranging between 10⁻⁸ and 10⁻⁷ seconds are typically expressed as tens or hundreds of nanoseconds.

Time units of this granularity are commonly found in telecommunications, pulsed lasers, and related aspects of electronics.

See also

• RKM code

References

1. "Size of the Nanoscale". National Nanotechnology Initiative. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
2. "On the extension of the range of SI prefixes". 18 November 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
3. "Metric (SI) Prefixes". NIST.
4. "Examples of Nanoscale Objects". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2024-03-16.