Are metric measurements like decameters and hectometers ever used?
Are metric measurements like decameters and hectometers ever used?
I've learned about them in school, but I've never heard anyone say something is 8 decameters long or anything like that. I'm an American.
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From my experience in Norway, these are typical in context of daily speech:
Weight (gram): tonne (a substitute name for Mg (Mega)), kg, hg, g, mg, μg (mostly in medicine)
Distance (meter): mil (10 km), km, m, dm (kinda rare), cm, mm
Volume (liter): l, dl, cl, ml
In my experience, the deca-predix is very rarely used. Most of the missing prefixes are just substituted for numbers, i.e. saying "a thousand kilometers" is much more common that "a megameter". Of course, this differs depending on context, as a lot of the prefixes become more common within scientific fields where the sizes are common.
On a separate note, even the numbers can be a bit inconsistent. It has bothered me that it's often common to say "a thousand milliard" instead of "one billion" (also note that we use the long scale).
In Germany Hectoliter is also used to calculate beer volume in commercial settings, like planning for a bar or a festival.
„Kommerziell“
From my experience in Norway, these are typical in context of daily speech: (...) km, m, dm (kinda rare), cm, mm
Don't forget the Scandinavian mile! You and the Swedes use it all the time.
Not sure how I forgot that! Will edit it in!
μm and nm used in engineering and science fields fairly frequently