how does the metric system work?
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There is a certain length that we call a meter. It is defined as the distance that light travels in vacuum in a given time (1/299792458 s).
Every fraction of 10 and every multiple of 10, the unit gets a different prefix, but not all prefixes are commonly used.
So, a tenth of a meter is a decimeter, but that is rarely used. The same length is more commonly referred to as 10 centimeters (1 cm=1/100m).
10 meters are a decameter, 100 meters are a hectometer, but those units are rarely used. 1000 meters is a kilometer, which is a common unit.
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