So, why is that? Most of the abbreviations for metric [i.e. SI]
prefixes with positive exponents are upper-case ... M [mega], G [giga],
T [tera], P [peta], X [exa], Z [zetta], Y [yotta]. *All* of the
abbreviations for prefixes denoting negative exponents are lower-case
... d [deci], c [centi], m [milli], u [micro, don't know how to get a mu
in email], n [nano], p [pico], f [femto], a [atto], z [zepto], y
[yocto]. When I bleed into the plasma machine each Fri, the blood
center measures my total serum protein in <somethings> per deciliter
Only da [deca 10^1], h [hecto 10^2], and k [kilo 10^3] violate this
pattern, which seems very un-metric. One would think the prefix
abbreviations would be paired letters, positive exponents get upper-case
and negative exponents get lower-case. How hard is that?
The prefixes themselves have some basis in real languages for smaller
[in absolute value] exponents ... I've always figured "milli" came from
a French word but since I speak almost no French, I'm not sure. I
struggled through 4 years of Latin in high school and I think I know the
origins of centi, deca, deci, and several others. Larger exponents in
absolute value really appear made up -- I mean, "yocto" and "Yotta"?
So, I generally camp on 1406100 daHz looking for folks activating
summits. Please call me if you're on a pointy part of the Earth.
73,
Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
- www.cqp.org
On 11/18/2014 3:19 PM, Peter Eijlander (PA0PJE) wrote:
It wasn't about Mr. Hertz it was about the kilo that consistently is
written by a lot of folks with an upper case K, what I tried to focus
on. I suppose everyone knows why Hertz was given to the cycles per
second Phil was referring to...:-)
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