>-----Original Message-----
>From: Brent DeWitt [mailto:[email protected]]
>Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2002 7:04 PM
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: case of units
>
>
>
>I've always found it interesting that the small "k" is the
>only lower case
>letter used for multipliers greater than unity. I presume it
>is because the
>temperature folks got there first with Lord Kelvin's initial. Too bad
>really since "kilo" has a linguistic meaning for numbers and
>Kelvin is just
>a name. Also rather interesting that we have no trouble using
>"G" for both
>Giga and Gauss.
>
>Just Sunday evening thoughts.
>
>Brent DeWitt
Brent:
For years, I had always written kiloHertz as KHz. Then, as a hirling, I
bumped up against the Information Technology Group at General Dynamics
Electronics Division. I noticed that all my text came back using "kHz."
After a few cycles of this, I decided to follow up on the cause. I found
that they worked to a bureaucratic "style manual", which dictated the style
for abbreviations and technical terms. I had the temerity to ask who wrote
the style manual, and why KHz was rendered as kHz. They finally produced a
Mil-Std, which had a list of acronyms and special terms. And, there on the
list, was "kHz"! No explanation, just "kHz". So I asked them if maybe the
Mil-Std was just a typo error, and that shouldn't we allow logic to prevail?
No, because if they did that, someone might think the abbreviation actually
meant "degrees Kelvin Hertz". They won.
Lately, after many more years of continuing to personally use KHz (and
having re-educated my MS Word about my preference), I find that I am
wearying of the explanations, and have started to use kHz. Yup, they won.
Ed
Ed Price
[email protected]
Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab
Cubic Defense Systems
San Diego, CA USA
858-505-2780 (Voice)
858-505-1583 (Fax)
Military & Avionics EMC Services Is Our Specialty
Shake-Bake-Shock - Metrology - Reliability Analysis
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