ABSTRACT
The word “nano” is of Greek origin. In Greek, “nanos” means dwarf or gnome. As a prefix, nano-denotes things that are extremely small, or minute. As a metric prefix, it has a precise meaning:
The word “nano” (n) denotes “one billionth,” or 10−9,
in a similar way as
“deci” (d) denotes “one tenth,” or 10−1, “centi” (c) denotes “one hundredth,” or 10−2, “milli” (m) denotes “one thousandth,” or 10−3, “micro” (μ) denotes “one millionth,” or 10−6, “pico” (p) denotes “one trillionth,” or 10−12, “femto” (f) denotes “one quadrillionth,” or 10−15, “atto” (a) denotes “one quintillionth,” or 10−18, “zepto” (z) denotes “one sextillionth,” or 10−21, “yocto” (y) denotes “one septillionth,” or 10−24, and “googol” is the very large number 10100, that is, the digit 1 followed
by 100 zeroes!
