Terminology for expressing the scale of a measurement system

I'm looking for the most applicable terminology for defining the scale of measurement units in a particular system.

For example, for a distance, in 'metric', the 'small' scale could be 'm' and the 'big' scale could be 'km'. In 'imperial', the 'small' scale could be 'feet' and the 'big' scale could be 'miles'.

Similarly with a speed, the 'small' and 'big' scales could be 'm/s' and 'km/h' respectively for the metric system, and 'ft/s' and 'mph' respectively for the imperial system.

Throughout this post I've referred to a 'small' and 'big' 'scale'. Are there better terms I could use?

Solution 1:

You could use the prefixes micro- and macro- to describe the two extremes.

You may have to define your use of them in your writing. Otherwise, they may be interpreted as micron scale vs kilometer scale.

Solution 2:

could it be "base unit"? and then "multiples" or "derived".

What you describe is perfectly clear, but I think there's no terminology for that.

So, meters (feet) is the base unit of the metric (imperial) length system; and kilometers, centimeters (miles, yards) are multiples in the metric (imperial) system.

Hope it helps...