📏 Decimal Ladder
Stop second-guessing milli, micro and kilo. Set a value, choose what you're converting from and to, predict which way the decimal moves, then watch it walk the ladder one rung at a time. The movement is the same for every electrical unit — this is where you build the muscle memory so the conversion becomes automatic.
Set up a conversion
Pick a value, the unit, and the prefixes you're going between. Then predict the decimal's move before it walks — guessing first is what makes it stick.
It's about which way you travel on the ladder, not the prefix by itself.
Why: a bigger unit is a bigger bucket, so you need fewer of them (smaller number). A smaller unit is a tiny bucket, so you need more (bigger number). The quantity never changes — only how you measure it.
Example: 2 Ω → kΩ goes up 3 rungs → decimal left 3 → 0.002 kΩ.
Hover or tab to the prefix symbols (µ, m, k…) on the ladder to see what each one means. The decimal moves the same way for every unit — ohms, volts, farads, henries — so the unit here is just a label on your answer.
One rung per power of ten
Each rung is ×10 from its neighbour. The named SI prefixes you actually use — kilo, milli, micro, nano — sit three rungs apart, because each step in the prefix scale is ×1000. Moving one named prefix is the same as moving the decimal point three places.
Down means bigger
Going down to a smaller unit (ohms → milliohms) means it takes more of them to equal the same quantity, so the number grows and the decimal moves right. Going up to a bigger unit is the reverse: fewer of them, smaller number, decimal left.
Three ways to use it
Instant (the default) auto-converts the moment you change anything and slides the decimal straight to its spot — the everyday driver. Predict first asks you to guess the direction and distance before the reveal, the fastest way to stop confusing which way it goes. Learn (walk) moves the decimal one rung at a time so you see every place shift. The big number panel up top shows the decimal point physically moving and the zeros being born as it passes them.
It's the same for every unit
2 Ω → mΩ moves the decimal exactly like 2 V → mV or 2 F → mF. The prefix math never depends on the unit, so once the ladder clicks, it works everywhere on the exam.