Meant to send this to the list, but it went to James F. only--oops.

SC

-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Clauss [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2000 3:30 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [USMA:9484] SI is English!


The talbot is a unit of luminous (light) energy. One talbot is the energy
carried by a light flux of one lumen in one second, that is, the talbot is
the same as the lumen second (lm�s). For light of wavelength 555 nanometers
(nm), the wavelength to which the eye is most sensitive, the talbot equals
1.464 millijoule. For other wavelengths l, the talbot equals 1.464�V(l)
millijoules, where V(l) is the "luminous efficiency," a factor representing
the relative sensitivity of the eye at wavelength l. Although the talbot is
compatible with the SI, it has not been accepted as part of the
International System; the symbol T would not be acceptable since it
duplicates the symbol for the tesla. The unit, previously called the
lumberg, is now named for the British physicist W.H. Fox Talbot (1800-1877).

Above stolen from :  http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/dictT.html

I don't think you could convert talbots to Sverdrup(m3/s) Janskies(W/m2Hz)
per Dobson Unit(m)  without extreme difficulty and much hand waving, but
Sverdrup was Norwegian, Jansky was American and Dobson was (is?)
British--none is French.

SC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: James R.Frysinger [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, December 01, 2000 2:04 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Scott Clauss; U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: Re: [USMA:9484] SI is English!
>
>
> 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
>

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