International scientists gathered in France voted on Friday for a new metric to express the world's largest and smallest measurements.
It's the first time in more than 30 years that new prefixes have been added to the International System of Units.
For the largest and smallest numbers, ronna and ronto are joining the ranks.
The 27th General Conference on Weights and Measures, which governs the SI and is held every four years at Versailles Palace, voted on the change.
The National Physical Laboratory confirmed that the resolution had passed.
It's easier to say a kilometer is 1,000 meters or a millimeter than it is to say it's one thousandth of a meter.
Scientific needs have led to a growing number of prefixes. The last time was in 1991.
There are 24 zeroes after a yottameter.
Richard Brown is the head of metrology at the UK's National Physical Laboratory.
Brown told Agence France-Presse that we are very close to the limit in terms of expressing data in yottabyte.
When you're measuring really, really small things, it makes sense to have a symmetrical expansion.
How we talk about large objects can be simplified by the new prefixes.
The Earth's mass is six ronnagrams, which is a six followed by 27 zeros.
Two followed by 30 zeroes is what Jupiter had in mind.
Brown said he came up with the idea for the update when he saw media reports that used unsanctioned prefixes. Since 2010, hella has been used by the search engine.
He said that it was clear that the SI had to do something.
B and H were already taken and ruled out bronto and hella.
R and Q were not used for other units.
The larger prefixes end in an A and the smaller ones in an O according to convention.
The middle of the words are based on Greek and Latin.
The world needs higher numbers for the next 20 to 25 years, he said.
Agence France- Presse.
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