The following is a list of commonly used terms by the Colonials (and their almost 'Earth time' equivalents in usage if not in actual time periods). Note that the series was full of conflicting terms, so this is some attempt to define the terms exactly for this setting. The Colonials use base ten for their time units as well as for most of their measurements.
Terms in yellow are Colonial and Cylon units, whilst terms in green are Earth equivilants.
The Colonials use several time scales - local time for individual planets, and standard time, which is used for the military, space travel and important events. Standard time is what is listed here.
| micron(s) | [second] |
| microcenton | (1 micron, not widely used term) |
| centon | [minute] |
| |
| millicenton | 10 centons |
| centar(s/ies/es) | [hour] |
| |
| day | (not widely used term) |
| secton(s) | [week] |
| quarton(s) | (1 secton, not widely used term) |
| sectar(es) | [month] |
| yahren | [year] |
| millenium | 1,000 yahrens |
Thus:
| 1 centon | = 100 microns | |
| 1 centar | = 100 centons | |
| 1 day | = 24 centars | |
| 1 secton | = 5 days | |
| 1 sectar | = 4 sectons | |
| 1 yahren | = 10 sectares |
See notes for more information.
| metron | [1 metre] |
| micron | [1 kilometre] |
| maxim | [10 kilometres] |
| hectare | [around 14,500,000 kilometres *] |
| parsec | [1 AU or around 150 million kilometres *] |
| laxar | unit of mass [1 kilogram] |
| megon | 1,000 laxars [1 metric ton] |
| laxon | unit of dry measurement [1 bushel] |
| kilon | unit of power [1 kilojoule] |
| voltons | voltage unit [1 volt] |
| wavelon | unit of wavelength |
| radion | unit of radiation |
| ergon | unit of energy |
* distance gained from the writers guide for the series, and are not the real astronomical values.
It is also confusing to note that the series uses the term galaxy and system to mean similiar things sometimes, and then throws in the term universe to also sometime mean galaxy.