Relative to Stan Jakuba's recommendation (below), I have found the
definitive "rule" for writing SI unit names and capitalization. It is
in the SI "bible".* It says:
"Unit names are ... treated like ordinary nouns. In English, the names
of units start with a lower case letter ... except at the beginning of
a sentence or in capitalized material such as a title."
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
* The SI "bible" is "The International System of Units (SI)" by the
Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), 8th Ed., 2006, pg.
131, section 5.2 "Unit names"
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SImplification Begins With SI.
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On Apr 4 , at 8:07 PM, Stan Jakuba wrote:
I am attaching a summary of the rules for writing SI units and
prefixes. You can also find such information on the NIST websites,
among others.
<attachment>
Names of units and prefixes may be written according to a native
script, but always in
lowercase (e.g. joule is the name of a unit, while Joule is the name
of the scientist;
similarly hertz and Hertz). Notice that the names would have to
start uppercase if
beginning a sentence; therefore, write sentences in a way to avoid
such placement, or use
the article "the" with the unit. Best of all, avoid writing out
names; use symbols instead.
