As it's a variable, I don't think a symbol (other than an italicized one, which would be scientifically appropriate, but not SI) is needed at all.
As it's only a four-letter word (in several languages -- only two letters in French), it's not too tedious to spell it out anyway. Its use in a pseudo-mask for date formatting (e.g., yyyy-mm-dd, used for MS Excel date cells and elsewhere) is arbitrary and convenient (and not intended to be faithful to SI). Bill Potts ________________________________ Bill Potts Roseville, CA http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Pierre Abbat Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 11:59 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:40675] symbol for year I've seen "y", "a", and "ya" as symbols for year ("ya" actually for "years ago"). Both "y" and "a" have problems: *If "a" means year, then a petayear is "Pa", but that's a pascal. *If "y" means year, then a gigayear is "Gy", but that's a gray. Anyone have a better suggestion for a symbol for year? Pierre
