Pre-Fixed Math

As I begin this post on using elementary math as a grown-up, I have to warn you that despite the way the title sounds, this is is NOT about cheating on tests, pre-school math, nor is it about French meals with a fixed price.

This post is about pre-fixes, those short  letter combinations that appear in front of other (math) words.

Prefix	Meaning	Example
bi-	two	bicycle
centi-	one hundred	centimeter, century
dec-	ten	decade
deci-	one-tenth	decimeter
equi-	equal ("in the middle")	equidistant, equiangular
femto-	10⁻¹⁵ or 0.000000000000001	femtocell phone transmitter (Danish femten 15)
giga-	10⁹ or 1,000,000,000	gigabytes
hemi-	half a sphere	hemisphere, Chrysler HEMI
hex-	six	hexagon, hex wrench
kilo-	10³ or 1,000	kilometer
mega-	10⁶ or 1,000,000 ("big")	megabytes, "it's a mega-project"

That's enough - I think you get the idea. Of course there are many more obscure prefixes, but these are commonly used in the math world, and it's essential to know most of them. Especially if you are taking at test and the question reads:

Select One: Is a quadrilateral considered to be (1) a regular polygon or (2) a pentathlon?

You might have read about OVERACHIEVING, PRECOCIOUS PRODIGIES, those brilliant folk whose math ability TRANSCENDS that of UNDERACHIEVERS. Notice all the prefixes?

Unlike the previous list of prefixes, the following group deals with position and order rather than numerical or calculation terms. Nevertheless, these are commonly used mathematics prefixes too.

Prefix	Meaning	Example
circum-	around	circumference, circumnavigate (the middle)
inter-	between	intersection, international
over-	above, upper, excessive	overconfident
pre-	ahead, before in line, first in order	prelude, precocious
pro-	favoring, motion forward, before its time	propulsion, prodigy
trans-	across, beyond	transatlantic, translate, transcend
under-	below, behind	underachievers, underarm