Here's my latest effort in applying the Jim Frysinger philosophy ... drop by drop! Ezra ----- Original Message ----- From: Steinberg, LawrenceX E To: Singer, Neal Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 1:43 PM Subject: RE: Sandia's Z machine hot, hot, hot!
Dear Neal: I appreciate your position and concern. I wholeheartedly support the approach you suggest of using the correct term in the first position followed by a more âcolloquialâ form in parentheses as the best way to disseminate correct usage while allowing for maximum understandability. Keep up the great work! Ezra -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Singer, Neal [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 1:33 PM To: Steinberg, LawrenceX E Subject: RE: Sandia's Z machine hot, hot, hot! Thanks, Ezra. Our problem in writing for the general public is that sci terminology always has a time lapse built into it before it's accepted. "Gigakelvins," or even 2 billion k, is not yet an easy read for your local mechanic or English teacher or airline steward. So we're trying to make it easy to understand a difficult general concept by being slightly incorrect in our terminology in the hope (paradoxically) of being clearer. Though perhaps next time we'll write it correctly with some kind of parenthesized explanation. Thanks for your explanation and the kind words. Neal -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Steinberg, LawrenceX E [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2006 1:52 PM To: Singer, Neal Subject: Sandia's Z machine hot, hot, hot! Dear Mr. Singer: I just saw the article about the Z machine at Sandia, which I found most interesting. One technical point I would like to offer you for future reference â the correct terminology is 2 gigakelvins, not two billion degrees Kelvin. Firstly, the official SI unit of temperature is the kelvin with a lowercase âkâ and without the word âdegreeâ. (This is different from using the term âdegrees Celsiusâ, which is correct.) Secondly, base units are prefixed to indicate the multiple or submultiple of the base unit, just as the base unit âmeterâ is prefixed with âkiloâ or âmilliâ to indicate the power of ten to apply to the base unit. The resulting term then follows a numeric value (such as â2â) that indicates an additional multiplier that does not include a power of 10 cubed. The result is that 2 times 10 to the 9th power kelvins is written out as â2 gigakelvinsâ. I hope you find this helpful. A style sheet is available from the United States Metric Association if you would like me to point you to it. Regards, Ezra Steinberg
