On 2005 Dec 7 , at 6:07 AM, Anon Anon wrote:
(the amu) does not have an *SI* symbol. It is not an SI unit.
Anon is right that the amu is not an SI uit. Nonetheless, it DOES have
an SI symbol!
The official BIPM booklet "The International System of Units (SI)"
lists unit symbols for several units that are not part of SI. On page
106, in Table 7, titled "Non-SI units accepted for use with the
International System, whose values are obtained experimentally", the
amu (identified by the name "unified atomic mass unit") is listed with
the prescribed symbol being "u".
The much more common unit, litre, is another (and more common) example
of a unit which is not an SI unit but is given an SI symbol, namely
"L"*.
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
* The SI document actually lists both the capital el (L) and the lower
case el (l) as correct symbols for litre. It is the only example (that
I know of) where two symbols are acceptable for the same SI unit.
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Go Metric America! Or get left behind!
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