OK, I give up. What's a talbot? The only thing I can find within 2 min
is "Talbot", an English dog that may have been the predecessor for the
bloodhound.
And while you're at it, how many Sverdrup Janskies per Dobson Unit is
that? ;-)
Jim
On Fri, 01 Dec 2000, Scott Clauss wrote:
> I have gotten tired of hearing the British and Americans say that SI is
> French, and isn't their system. This morning while looking at torque
> wrenches it stuck me as odd that they advertize them as using "English and
> metric" units, but the metric units were newton-meters. I thought is was
> silly saying Newton wasn't English, so I made this little table. Appears SI
> is more UK than anything else. What did I miss, and did I get anything
> wrong?
>
> meter From the Latin metrum and the Greek metron, both meaning "measure."
> kilogram From chilioi, the Greek word for a thousand + the Latin gramma,
> which was a small weight similar to the English grain
> second the second division of the hour, latin secundus
> ampere French physicist Andr�-Marie Amp�re
> kelvin English (Scottish?) mathematician and physicist William
>Thomson,
> later Lord Kelvin
> mole named by W. Ostwald, a German Chemist, from MOLekulargewicht.
> candela From the Latin word for "candle."
> radian named by James Thomson, brother of Lord Kelvin, latin radius.
> steradian from the Greek stereos, solid + radian
> hertz German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
> newton English mathematician, and physicist Isaac Newton
> pascal French mathematician Blaise Pascal
> joule British physicist James Prescott Joule
> watt British engineer James Watt
> coulomb French physicist, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
> volt Italian scientist Count Alessandro Volta
> farad British physicist Michael Faraday
> ohm German physicist Georg Simon Ohm
> siemens German electrical engineer Werner von Siemens
> weber German physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber
> tesla (Croatian- (or Serbian-?))American electrical engineer Nikola Tesla
> henry American physicist Joseph Henry
> degree Celsius Swedish astronomer and physicist Anders Celsius
> lumen from Latin for light
> lux from Latin for light
> becquerel French physicist, Antoine-Henri Becquerel
> gray British physician L. H. Gray
> sievert Swedish physicist Rolf Sievert
> katal From "catalyst"?
>
> Totals:
> Non-proper name origin 10
> English/British 6
> German 4
> French 4
> American 2
> Swedish 2
> Italian 1
>
> If you add the quasi-SI units of talbot, bel and neper you pick up two more
> Brits and another American.
>
> After spending some time doing this I found a nice web page that has a
> similar list with pictures of the men (yes they're all men) involved.
> http://indykfi.atomki.hu/indyKFI/MT/orig_si.htm
> Quick what metric derived, but not SI, unit is named after a woman?
>
> And on a off topic, what is the difference between British and English? I
> suppose they used to swing swords at each other because of the distinction,
> but in America at least in modern times the distinction has faded.
>
> Since this is non-HTML the columns may get messed up in transit.
>
> Cheers,
> Scott C
--
James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston
10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street
843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424
http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644
