Mega

Mega is a term derived from the Greek word megas, meaning "great". In the context of measurement, it is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of one million (10^6 or 1,000,000). It has the symbol M in the International System of Units (SI).

Usage

The prefix mega is widely used in many fields of study such as physics, chemistry, and information technology to denote large quantities. For example, in computing, it is often used to denote multiples of bytes (bytes) in the measurement of data storage capacity (data storage), such as in megabyte (MB) and megabit (Mb).

In Computing

In the realm of computing, the term mega is often used to denote 1,048,576 (2^20) bytes, particularly in the context of data storage capacity and data transmission rates, as in megabyte and megabit. However, this usage is inconsistent with the SI definition and has been largely replaced by the binary prefix mebi (Mebi), symbol Mi, denoting 2^20.

In Science and Engineering

In science and engineering, mega is used to denote 10^6 of a unit. For example, a megahertz (MHz) is one million hertz (Hz), a megawatt (MW) is one million watts (watt), and a megapascal (MPa) is one million pascals (pascal).

In Popular Culture

In popular culture, "mega" is often used informally to denote a large quantity of something or a high degree of something. For example, a "mega event" would be an event of great size or importance.

See Also

• Giga
• Kilo
• Tera
• Peta
• Exa
• Zetta
• Yotta

SI prefixes

Prefix		Base 10	Decimal	Adoption
Name	Symbol
quetta	Q	1030		2022
ronna	R	1027
yotta	Y	1024		1991
zetta	Z	1021
exa	E	1018		1975
peta	P	1015
tera	T	1012		1960
giga	G	109
mega	M	106		1873
kilo	k	103		1795
hecto	h	102	100
deca	da	101	10
—	—	100	1	—
deci	d	10−1	0.1	1795
centi	c	10−2	0.01
milli	m	10−3	0.001
micro	μ	10−6		1873
nano	n	10−9		1960
pico	p	10−12
femto	f	10−15		1964
atto	a	10−18
zepto	z	10−21		1991
yocto	y	10−24
ronto	r	10−27		2022
quecto	q	10−30
Notes