Final answer:
The correct metric abbreviation for one thousand seconds is 'ks' which uses the 'kilo-' prefix indicating a multiple of one thousand of the base unit 'second'.
Step-by-step explanation:
The metric abbreviation for one thousand seconds would be denoted using the prefix 'kilo' which means 1,000 times the base unit. In this case, the base unit is 'seconds', abbreviated as 's'. Therefore, a thousand seconds would be written as 'ks', which is option (b). This is comparable to other metric abbreviations such as a kilometer (km) or a kilogram (kg), where 'kilo-' indicates a multiple of one thousand of the base unit involved. In other examples, a millisecond (ms) represents a thousandth of a second (or 1/1,000 of a second), demonstrating how prefixes can alter the magnitude of the base unit.