What does 'G' mean on the altimeter?

[Fireheart318]

I know m = Meters, K = Kilometers, M = Megameters, but what does G mean? Gazillions? And what about T and Z?

[Deadpangod3]

G refers to Gigameters I think.

[Alshain]

Gigameters

EDIT: Ninja'd

Metric prefixes in everyday use
Text	Symbol	Factor	Power
exa	E	1000000000000000000	1018
peta	P	1000000000000000	1015
tera	T	1000000000000	1012
giga	G	1000000000	109
mega	M	1000000	106
kilo	k	1000	103
hecto	h	100	102
deca	da	10	101
(none)	(none)	1	100
deci	d	0.1	10−1
centi	c	0.01	10−2
milli	m	0.001	10−3
micro	μ	0.000001	10−6
nano	n	0.000000001	10−9
pico	p	0.000000000001	10−12
femto	f	0.000000000000001	10−15
atto	a	0.000000000000000001	10−18

[juavnaldezmyhero]

I do like the idea of a Gazlliometer. We should make that the thing.

[Gaarst]

33 minutes ago, Alshain said:

Gigameters

EDIT: Ninja'd

Metric prefixes in everyday use
Text	Symbol	Factor	Power
exa	E	1000000000000000000	1018
peta	P	1000000000000000	1015
tera	T	1000000000000	1012
giga	G	1000000000	109
mega	M	1000000	106
kilo	k	1000	103
hecto	h	100	102
deca	da	10	101
(none)	(none)	1	100
deci	d	0.1	10−1
centi	c	0.01	10−2
milli	m	0.001	10−3
micro	μ	0.000001	10−6
nano	n	0.000000001	10−9
pico	p	0.000000000001	10−12
femto	f	0.000000000000001	10−15
atto	a	0.000000000000000001	10−18

In addition to that, Z is zetta- or 10²¹ and Y is yotta- or 10²⁴. I don't think there are any official names beyond that.

Edited October 21, 2016 by Gaarst
There are 2 "t"s in "zetta"

[Zhetaan]

9 minutes ago, Gaarst said:

In addition to that, Z is zetta- or 10²¹ and Y is yotta- or 10²⁴. I don't think there are any official names beyond that.

Also, there are zepto- or 10^-21 and yocto- or 10^-24.  And you're right:  there are no official names after that.  A zettametre describes distances between galaxies; a yottametre describes the sizes of superclusters.  At these scales, megaparsecs make more sense--assuming, of course, that any measure of such distances truly makes sense.

On the small side, a zeptometre is ten thousand times smaller than a proton--again, assuming that 'distance' at such scales makes any sense.  It and the yoctometre sit uncomfortably between the range where ångströms are useful and where you really should just be using multiples of the Planck length.

Edited October 21, 2016 by Zhetaan

[Alshain]

1 hour ago, Gaarst said:

In addition to that, Z is zetta- or 10²¹ and Y is yotta- or 10²⁴. I don't think there are any official names beyond that.

Yeah, I just copied that list from Wikipedia.  I'm surprised the formatting held.

[flatbear]

forces of gravity

[Pecan]

Don't forget that the googol (not Google!) is out there "somewhere" ^^.
(10 ^ 100).