vaheühik

Vaheühik is a term in Estonian that means a subunit or subdivision of a larger unit. It refers to a unit that is used to express quantities more precisely by representing a fixed fraction of a base unit or by serving as a smaller constituent within a measurement system. The concept is common in metrology, finance, and other fields where measurements are divided into smaller, regularly spaced parts.

In practice, vaheühikud are units that partition a base unit by a fixed factor, often a power of ten. For example, centimetres and millilitres are vaheühikud of the metre and the litre, because 1 metre equals 100 centimetres and 1 litre equals 1000 millilitres. In currency, subunits such as the euro cent function as vaheühikud of the main currency unit, enabling prices and values to be expressed with greater granularity. The idea also appears in information technology and data measurement, where smaller units (like bits within a byte, or kilobytes and megabytes within larger data sizes) serve as practical subdivisions for expressing quantities.

Etymologically, vaheühik combines vahe (difference or interval) with ühik (unit), highlighting its role as an intermediate part of a larger measuring system. The term is used across contexts to describe any regularly divided unit that makes measurements more precise or conveniently expressed.

See also: base unit, derived unit, decimal prefix, subunit.