[Elecraft] ESSB - SI Rag Chew (sic)

[r j]

*k*, kilo (prefix)
*K, kelvin* (degree name), (symbol) °K, before 1967 "*degree Kelvin*",
(Kelvin - person's surname)

On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 7:24 AM, Fred Jensen <k6dgw at foothill.net> wrote:

> 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...:-)
>>
>
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