Common SI prefixes

Physical Quantity is a quantity that can be measured and it consists of a numerical magnitude (size) and a unit. (e.g. 5m where 5 is the numerical magnitude and m is the unit)

1) The seven base quantities and their SI units

Out of the seven, for O level Physics, you are required to learn the first 5 (length, mass, time, current and temperature).

2) Some common derived quantities and units

You can think of base quantities as the smallest building blocks (like Lego bricks). When you combined any base quantities to ‘build’ into something else, they becomes a derived quantity.The derived quantity is ‘derived’ or ‘gotten from’ when 2 or more quantities are combined together.

3) Prefixes for SI units

Prefixes are used to represent very large or small quantities.For example, instead of writing 1000000 m, it will be more convenient to write 1Mm, which means the same thing!