Abbreviated designations of electrical quantities, how not to get confused in them

When you assemble any electronic circuit, you inevitably face the need constantly recalculate the values ​​of resistances of resistors, capacitances of capacitors, inductance coils.

And if this recalculation does not cause any particular difficulties for an experienced electronics engineer, then a beginner may have problems. In this article, I will tell you how to correctly translate, for example, nanofarads to microfarads, kilo-ohms to mega-ohms, etc.

Why is it needed

If, during design and assembly, you make a mistake with the denomination of one or another value, then an already fully assembled device may simply not work, or it may function completely incorrectly. And you have to spend time looking for the reason.

It's actually quite easy to make a mistake (especially for a novice radio amateur). Indeed, often on the wiring diagram, the nominal value, for example, of a capacitor will be indicated in microfarads, and on the radioelements themselves, the capacity is indicated (in most cases) in nanofarads.

In order not to make such a simple mistake, it is enough to have a plate in which all the accepted abbreviations will be indicated, according to the international system of units, and to learn how to use it.

After examining the table, you probably noticed that the difference between many prefixes is exactly 1000.

For example, this step is observed between multiples, starting with the prefix kilo-

• Kilo - 1000;
• Mega - 1,000,000;
• Giga - 1,000,000,000;
• Tera - 1,000,000,000,000.

For example, if the resistor has a resistance of 1 Megaohm (Megaohm), then the resistance in just ohms will be 1,000,000.

If we consider the so-called fractional values, then in this case a decrease in the numerical value is observed.

In this case, prefixes: milli, micro, nano and pico also have a step of 1000. For example, if it is said that a 47 microfarad capacitor is needed, then this means that in nanofarads its capacity will be 47,000, and in picofarads already 47,000,000.

Here's another example: you need a 1 nanofarad capacitor, in microfarads this value will look like this: 0.001 μF, and in picofarads - 10,000 pF.

Having memorized this table, you, without wasting time and minimizing the probability of error, will easily select radio components of the required rating.

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