Thanks to Bill and Scott, on the talbot. As I said, I had not taken the
time to do an internet keyword search. I appreciate you two for doing
that for me. I'll have to add that to my unwritten list of arcane,
guild-craft terminology, along with the Sverdrup, Jansky, Dobson Unit,
Kilpatrick, etc. Gee, and scientists wonder why beginning students
think we make things complicated!
Jim
On Fri, 01 Dec 2000, Bill Potts wrote:
> Henry Fox Talbot.
>
> Check this reference:
> http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Talbot.html.
>
> I made a quick visit, myself, and noticed a glaring error (Wiltshire
> misspelled Whiltshire). No other obvious errors though.
>
> You might try using the Google search engine (http://google.com). The above
> URL was from the ninth hit.
>
> Bill Potts, CMS
> San Jose, CA
> http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> > Behalf Of James R.Frysinger
> > Sent: December 01, 2000 14:04
> > To: U.S. Metric Association
> > Subject: [USMA:9487] Re: 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
> >
> >
--
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
