Re: K'lommiters

Peter Parker (parkerp@pcug.org.au)
18 Aug 97 20:38:39 GMT

"Krel" <krel4203@netconnect.com.au> wrote:

>Its pretty easy - if a unit is named after a person (eg Pascal) then it has
>an upper case initial; if it is not (eg kilo) it is lower case. / means per
>so kmp/h means kilometres per per hour.
>
>

I'm not sure about that. "kilo" is not a unit - it is merely a
multiplier. Thus it is more sensible to compare "Pascal" with "metre"
(both being units) than with a multiplier (eg kilo). However, if you
were to do that, the sentence above would make sense. As for "kmp/h", I
assume that is a typo!

One apparent oddity is kilo (x1000) is lower case (eg kilohm,
kilometre, kHz), while mega is upper case (eg Megohm, MHz). Maybe it's
because M could be milli (m) or Mega (M).

But wouldn't it make sense if all multioliers above 1 were upper case
(deca, hecto, kilo, mega, giga, tetra, etc) and all units below 1 were
lower case (deci, milli, micro, nano, pico)? For the units below one
that is the case already, but apparently not for the larger units.

-- 
__________________________________________________________
Peter Parker                           

E-mail: parkerp@pcug.org.au Phone: (06) 285 1004 (ah) Amateur Radio: VK1PK

Home Page: http://www.pcug.org.au/~parkerp/ The home of Novice Notes Online and the VK QRP Web Page. ___________________________________________________________