Word Knowledge
Yesterday I presented the prefix kilo-. Do you know what the prefix kilo- means?
Kilo- is a Greek prefix that means thousand. As an ASVAB tutor, I remind my students of the importance of knowing metric measurements on the ASVAB. Kilo- is a prefix that is used in metric measurements.
A kilometer is 1000 meters.
A kilogram is 1000 grams.
A kilowatt is 1000 watts of electrical power.
A kilobyte is 1024 bytes. Every memory unit is based on powers of 2. 210 is 1024 bytes which is close enough to a thousand to be called kilo.
A kilovolt is thousand volts.
A kilocalorie is the amount of heat required to raise 1 kilogram of water 1°C.
There are several words in the English language whose meaning is easier to understand when you know that the prefix kilo- means one thousand.
