[Elecraft] ESSB

[Fred Jensen]

So, why is that?  Most of the abbreviations for metric [i.e. SI] 
prefixes with positive exponents are upper-case ... M [mega], G [giga], 
T [tera], P [peta], X [exa], Z [zetta], Y [yotta].  *All* of the 
abbreviations for prefixes denoting negative exponents are lower-case 
... d [deci], c [centi], m [milli], u [micro, don't know how to get a mu 
in email], n [nano], p [pico], f [femto], a [atto], z [zepto], y 
[yocto].  When I bleed into the plasma machine each Fri, the blood 
center measures my total serum protein in <somethings> per deciliter

Only da [deca 10^1], h [hecto 10^2], and k [kilo 10^3] violate this 
pattern, which seems very un-metric.  One would think the prefix 
abbreviations would be paired letters, positive exponents get upper-case 
and negative exponents get lower-case.  How hard is that?

The prefixes themselves have some basis in real languages for smaller 
[in absolute value] exponents ... I've always figured "milli" came from 
a French word but since I speak almost no French, I'm not sure.  I 
struggled through 4 years of Latin in high school and I think I know the 
origins of centi, deca, deci, and several others.  Larger exponents in 
absolute value really appear made up -- I mean, "yocto" and "Yotta"?

So, I generally camp on 1406100 daHz looking for folks activating 
summits.  Please call me if you're on a pointy part of the Earth.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 50th Running of the Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2015
- www.cqp.org

On 11/18/2014 3:19 PM, Peter Eijlander (PA0PJE) wrote:
> It wasn't about Mr. Hertz it was about the kilo that consistently is
> written by a lot of folks with an upper case K, what I tried to focus
> on. I suppose everyone knows why Hertz was given to the cycles per
> second Phil was referring to...:-)