At 11:32 am 02/03/2006 -0900, you wrote: > >On Mar 2, 2006, at 7:07 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: hohlrauml6d >> >> Paul is often a little sloppy with his terminology. He forgets to >> use the proper units. The pulse duration is not .028 ms, it's .028 s. >> >> <><><><><><><> >> >> Damn, I didn't finish the post. Why does the brain degrade so >> quickly after reaching 50? >> >> I meant to add that Paul meant 1.05 Watt-seconds, a measure of >> energy equal to 1.05 Joule. It is usually considered polite to >> capitalize the units which represent a name. > >Surprisingly to many, this is not so. When a scientist's name >reaches the exalted state of being used as a unit, then when spelled >out in that usage it is no longer capitalized. This non- >capitalization rule is in itself an honor, designating the use of an >international standard. However, the name is still capitalized in the >abbreviation. Consider the following SI units and their abbreviations: > >hertz Hz >newton N >Pascal Pa >joule J >watt W >coulomb C >volt V >ohm (capital omega) >siemens S >farad F >tesla T >weber Wb >henry H >becquerel Bq >gray Gy >sievert Sv > >and some ordinary SI units: > >lumen lm >lux lx >radian rad >steradian sr > >Horace Heffner
Personally, I find this canonization of scientists bloody annoying. As a protest I always write Centigrade instead of Celsius. At least with a unit like a lumen or lux, you know it has something to do with light - and a radian relates to a radius - but names like gray and sievert convey absolutely nothing to me. At least you yanks have stuck to the imperial system of weights and measures for common usage and not adopted the froggy metric - yet. ;-) Frank (even my spell checker didn't recognise sievert)
