Dear Stan and John,
You may recall this thought from a year or two ago.
I have devised two mnemonics to help people learn SI prefixes easily.
Details of the development and rationale for these mnemonics is
indicated in these tables.
Prefixes less than 1 (sub-multiples)
10-3
10-6
10-9
10-12
10-15
10-18
10-21
10-24
millie,
mike's
nana,
pickled
fish
at
zepto's
yacht(o)
milli
micro
nano
pica
femto
atto
zepto
yocto
m
ยต
n
p
f
a
z
y
Note: I considered fems instead of fish, but I couldn't bear the sound
of it.
Prefixes more than 1 (multiples)
killer
Meg,
Giggling,
Terrified
Peter's
Extra
Zits.
Yuk!
kilo
mega
giga
tera
peta
exa
zetta
yotta
k
M
G
T
P
E
Z
Y
103
106
109
1012
1015
1018
1021
1024
Note: I considered 'kindly Meg' but then I grew to like 'killer Meg'
much better.
I make no apology for the silliness of the words that I chose for
these mnemonics. Mnemonics seem to work best if they contain off-the-
wall ideas coupled with reasonably strong rhythms
On 2009/04/09, at 12:30 AM, Stan Jakuba wrote:
To my knowledge, there is no normal pupil in continental Europe that
would graduate without knowing this long word by heart:
pikonanomikromillicentidekahektokilomegagigatera.
When I had to memorize those names of powers, it was even longer
having myria between kilo and mega. I guess learning foreign names
of numbers was always a prerequisite for a contact among Europeans
before the euro, and we thought nothing of learning these too.
In the US, it is a rare teacher that would not teach "converting"
between prefixes. As if anyone were converting among ten or hundred
and thousand. Learning metric means learning a language (of
measurement). No wonder the countries most resistant to foreign
languages, England and the US, are still not metric.
Teachers should stress that there are NO CONVERSIONS in SI. But
then, how to justify the teaching hours?
Stan Jakuba
----- Original Message -----
From: John M. Steele
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: 09 Apr 08, Wednesday 09:15
Subject: [USMA:44479] Re: Algorithm
I would agree with that advice through the elementary grades, and
probably through 7th grade. Somewhere in grades 8-12, it might be
good to teach basic conversions to everybody, and more specialized
conversions to students on certain "college prep" tracks. (I am not
fond of the "priests of knowledge," only an expert can answer that
syndrome)
While dissuading teachers from teaching conversion to young
children, I would also discourage "stupid" problems like how many
nanometers in a kilometer, and instead teach proper selection of
prefix, conversion from inappropriate prefix to an appropriate one,
and conversion to and from prefixes and unprefixed with scientific
notation. Using youthful apprehension about large, unwieldly
numbers to make metric seem frightening is worse than conversion.
--- On Tue, 4/7/09, Bill Hooper <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Bill Hooper <[email protected]>
Subject: [USMA:44469] Re: Algorithm
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2009, 10:16 PM
Here's the way I put it to my Metric Classes and to my seminars/
talks for teachers:
"Don't teach or do conversions from one system to another. That is
the most difficult and the most useless thing to learn.
"Yes, there will be some conversions that have to be done as we
adopt the metric system, but they will be done by experts or
specialists in the field. It will not need to be done by the
everyday consumer. When you need to know a converted value, these
experts will provide it for you."
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
==========================
Make It Simple; Make It Metric!
==========================
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PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
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