New prefixes appeared in the SI system - the Earth now weighs 6 ronnagrams

For the first time in over 30 years, new terms have been officially added to the International System of Units (SI). Four new prefixes: ronna (ronna, 10²⁷ or a number with 27 zeros) and quetta (quetta, 10³⁰), as well as ronto (ronto, 10^-27) and quecto (quecto, 10^-30).

The adoption of new prefixes was confirmed by the National Physical Laboratory of Great Britain, which initiated the introduction of terms. For that voted scientists and government representatives from around the world who attended the 27th General Conference on Weights and Measures.

According to scientists, the scientific community has long needed new values. This is especially true in the field of chemistry, where you need to express huge amounts of molecular compounds.

According to Dr Richard Brown, Head of Metrology at the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL), these prefixes were chosen because R and Q were the last two letters of the alphabet that were not used for the others values.

Already now, new prefixes can be used to express the mass of the Earth, which is estimated at about 6 ronnagrams, and Jupiter - about 2 kettagrams. At the other end of the scale, for example, is the mass of an electron, which is 1 rontogram, and 1 kvectogram is the mass of one bit of data stored in a mobile phone.

Brown added that the new prefixes should "protect the system from the future" and satisfy the world's need for higher numbers - for at least the next 20 to 25 years.

The last time the concept of zetta was introduced into the International System of Units (SI) (10²¹) and yotta (10²⁴) in 1991.