I remember using SI units in physics in about 1960, as well as cgs units. There was also an occasional lapse into BTUs - but I think that was for steam engines!
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That is funny ! In modern large air-conditioning equipment (HVAC) the BTU still is used. Together with Joules...
always about the food... 😎
I just finished my last slice of bread crumb, lime and 'coconut crunch' cake with a boozy Limoncello and palm sugar syrup mmmmm
coconut crunch is ground up coconut fiber from after they extract the oil, works great in macaroons too.
oops sorry for OT, there was roughly 1 Metric cup of coconut crunch in the cake.
oh man, I cant think of anything to say that is actually on topic, can you?
Speaking of remembering, i recall using cc's instead of ml, back when i was a whole lot younger.
Still would prefer it today.
(i = continued rebellian uprise against a capital letter that looks pretentious, and a waste of hitting the shift button for web use)
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wierd and funny units
And this obsolete one: cm (centimeter), a CGS unit, equal to 1.113E-12 farad.
But what about a 'daraf' (=1/F, electrical elastance) or abfarad = 1 gigaF or statfarad = 1 microF?
Cheers,
E.
And this obsolete one: cm (centimeter), a CGS unit, equal to 1.113E-12 farad.
But what about a 'daraf' (=1/F, electrical elastance) or abfarad = 1 gigaF or statfarad = 1 microF?
Cheers,
E.
jar
Oops, that was an embarrassing omission.
1 jar = 1.11265E-9 farad = 1E3 cm = 10 m? 😕 🙄
Cheers,
E.
BTW, who is that Sponge Bob?
Oops, that was an embarrassing omission.
1 jar = 1.11265E-9 farad = 1E3 cm = 10 m? 😕 🙄
Cheers,
E.
BTW, who is that Sponge Bob?
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While it's officially obsolete, there are a lot of schematics floating around of old equipment (Heathkit, Knight-Kit, HH Scott), and I recall some youngster asking "What's an MFD?" I'm tempted to answer "Oh, that's obsolete, but I need something to anchor my boat, and I'll be glad to take that McIntosh thing off your hands."
There was an attempt at a "ten year plan" to have the USA go metric, starting in the mid-late 1970's. I think President Ford was in office, though I don't recall how much he had to do with it other than probably signing a bill into law. I was in high school at the time and well-versed in science, and was happy to finally see this officially happening. The TV weather forecasters were giving temperatures in centigrade (or had the name already changed to Celsius at the time?) as well as Fahrenheit. That was the major "first change" in the Metric conversion.
The conversion effort fizzled out in what seems like no time, but bank signs still display temperature in both "F" and "C." Perhaps immigrants think it displays "C" for their benefit!
My father was an amateur radio operator and a subscriber to the ARRL official magazine QST. In the '60's or '70's I read a letter in a new issue about how it was high time that "Cycles Per Second"/CPS be replaced with Hertz in honor of the radio pioneer. At the bottom of the letter was the explanation "Reprinted from QST, 1944." I think it was 1980 when NBS/NIST/whatever the US standards organization was at the time made the change.
Google will recognize a mathematical expression in words, complete with units (though it might be interesting to try MMFD and mF to see what it comes up with!), and it will seamlessly convert units (as in you can add feet and kilometers). This expression has always fascinated me, though I've seen far more complicated calculations done with Google's built-in calculator:
the speed of light in furlongs per fortnight - Google Search
I can't remember where I originally saw it, possibly a textbook, but the same idea appears in Wikipedia. What this says, which I didn't know, is that the rule is not universal: English and French do as I said, but German retains capitals for unit names. This might explain the confusion: what do other languages do in this situation? Dutch, Spanish?
So, when writing in English (as on this website) you can talk about 50W or 50 watts of output power. Same for French. If on a German site you would say 50 Watts. As this is an international site I guess we have to allow some latitude.
So, when writing in English (as on this website) you can talk about 50W or 50 watts of output power. Same for French. If on a German site you would say 50 Watts. As this is an international site I guess we have to allow some latitude.
All nouns are written with a capital letter in German.
(aka learn a lingo before making up statements)
(aka learn a lingo before making up statements)
Nothing made up. Someone writing in English on an English-language website said that unit names should start with a capital letter if they derive from a proper noun. I said no; the reverse is true. I was right. The only caveat is that this rule is not universal; I assumed it was.
I was taught in school that only ℓ or L is acceptable (ℓ preferred), never l. That's why I wrote mL. I didn't know off-hand how to do mℓ.
I know my english grammar is poor, but I am not inclined towards lower case letter for using the whole word as a unit, eg W and Watt seem right for the unit and Watt is also right when referring to "the man".
I would never write watt. But maybe english grammar tells me otherwise.
But your observation is correct, This is an english language Forum, where we give latitude to foreign Members. That never equates to other language standards overruling correct english grammar.
Or put it another way, americanised spelling should not be claimed to be correct if it is different from the english spelling.
We can tolerate americanised spelling provided it does not lead to ambiguity, but that form of spelling is not correct on an english language Forum.
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I was certainly not intending to raise the issue of (British) English versus American (English), so I wish you had not done this. We (most of us, anyway) accept that the Atlantic is a minor divide in spelling and grammar, so either version of English is acceptable here.
The situation is clear: for an English-speaker writing in English it is incorrect to talk of power in Watts, although we will of course understand what is meant. Alternatives may "seem right" but they are not. People might think I am being picky, but of course this whole issues was raised by someone asserting the opposite.
The situation is clear: for an English-speaker writing in English it is incorrect to talk of power in Watts, although we will of course understand what is meant. Alternatives may "seem right" but they are not. People might think I am being picky, but of course this whole issues was raised by someone asserting the opposite.
The confusing part is that, for example, the unit is watts, the abbreviation is W. Or kelvin versus K.
Yes, I think that is what people find confusing. In general, people seem to find case-significance a problem. This was always a problem when switching between different computer systems as some ignore case and others don't. We should at least try to insist that power is W (not w), capacitance is F (not f), conductance is S (not s) and milli is m (not M).
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