Talk:SI prefix

The article claims that a liter is sometimes "referred to as a 'dumphrey'". I couldn't verify that claim and removed it. AxelBoldt

The powers of two have a new SI standard, IINM. 2¹⁰ bytes == 1 Kibibyte (1 KiB), 2²⁰ bits == 1 Mebibit (1 Mib), 2³⁰ bytes = 1 Gibibyte (1 GiB). -- Hari (2002-03-18)

See http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html, for instance -- Hari (2002-03-18)

Could you add an explanation to that effect? Such as "KiB should be used instead of KB...". (It's not a SI standard however.) AxelBoldt

Does anyone have an objction to me moving most of the explanation of byte prefixes to Byte prefixes, and leaving just a short paragraph on it here & a link? -- Tarquin 14:45 Jan 12, 2003 (UTC)

I've renamed it to "Binary prefixes". It's used for anything based on the power of 2 (e.g., bits, words), not just bytes. -- Dwheeler 20:12 21 May 2003 (UTC)

In my opinion, the whole "Computing" section must go. It is entirely incorrect when using the rules of the SI. The SI does not define any special exceptions to do with computing, and this entry implying such is incorrect. It's fine if we move this to a new entry, but it must be very clear that such usage goes against the SI. --Eliasen 11:07, 28 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I agree. Remove the section and direct them to binary prefix. - Omegatron 22:36, Mar 3, 2005 (UTC)

Contents

5 Prefixes for 10^27 and 10^30

11 Non-standard prefix abbreviations?

"iso" prefix

I've just added this. Gritchka I have to say I've never seen 'iso' mentioned in this context. What's the authority for this?

I've never heard of it. My encyclopedia doesn't give it in the table of SI. Official reference such as http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP811/sec04.html doesn't give it. The only link I have found on google about it seems contentious (Star Trek science). It's also faintly ludicrous -- a metre is a metre. What is the point of saying "isometre"? Just to clinch it, the official site http://www.bipm.fr/enus/3_SI/si-prefixes.html makes no mention of it. I think someone thought "isobar" was a prefix applied to "bar", whereas it's a line of constant value on a map. In short, I can't find any evidence of its existence, rather, I'm finding evidence of its non-existence. It's going. It's gone ;-) -- Tarquin 00:34 Sep 15, 2002 (UTC)

Subdividing these?

It's all very well with the prefixes given here, but what about for example organic chemistry? You require extra endings for 2, 3, 4, 5, 6... (Okay, so they start meth- eth- prop- but-, but that's not the point... think about silanes.) What are the prefixes for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...?

I don't understand your question. There are only prefixes for powers of 10. The prefixes used for systematic chemical names have nothing to do with SI -- Tarquin 23:04, 2 Oct 2003 (UTC)

"Billiard", etc

Do the number names "billard", "trilliard", etc, really exist? "Milliard" is old-fashioned (possibly archaic) in UK usage although its cognates are current in some European languages. I have never seen "billiard", etc, listed in any printed dictionary, except as "billiards", which is a game similar to pool. The UK, as has been pointed out on the page, now tends to use "billion", etc, in the same way as they are used in the UK. Other European languages vary between the US system and the older UK system. Could someone point out an authoratitive reference that lists these terms? If not, could I suggest they are removed or marked as neologisms, for the nonce, rare, jokey, or something else? Thanks. -- Paul G 09:57, 12 Jan 2004 (UTC)

At least in Swedish, the series Miljon, Miljard, Biljon, Biljard etc. series is used.

Nonna, Dogga, etc.

Is there any reason that Nonabyte and Doggabyte haven't been added to this list yet? I was going to add them myself, but I wanted to clarify that their British name would be "Thousand Quadrillion" and "Quintillion", and that their symbols would be 'N' and 'D'. Does anyone have any authoritative sources on these? -- DropDeadGorgias 17:16, 19 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Because they are not real SI prefixes? -- The Anome 06:00, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

To answer this question about Nona and Dogga, there have been various times in history when nonabyte existed as a Wikipedia article, but it always went onto the "votes for deletion" page. About 90% of all Wikipedians agree that it shouldn't have a Wikipedia article. 66.245.30.189 02:01, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Prefixes for 10^27 and 10^30

The creator of the Names of large numbers article has a part that uses SI prefixes for part of it that goes past yotta for xenna and viki. 66.32.148.174 23:13, 3 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Prefix for 10^27??

I contacted the webmaster of bimp.org and they say that they will not confirm a prefix for 10^27 as of 2005. Any comments?? 66.245.95.15 16:29, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Surely the entry for Bronto must be removed until such time as this is confirmed by SI / BIPM?

The BBC has just written an article mentioning Brontobyte [[1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3673262.stm)] as 10^27, but, Googling, there seems to be few precedents - a Sybase article [[2] (http://www.sybase.com/content/1031253/EnterpriseUnwired.pdf)](which can't even spell yottabyte); a UCL article [[3] (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uczcw11/modules/p028l03.ppt)] which puts a Brontobyte at 1000 Eb = 10^21 = Zettabyte?? An American article [[4] (http://openc.k12.or.us/sitedocs/styleguide/abbreviations.html)] which thinks that Brontobyte = Petabyte = 10^15 - and none of these cite any de jure authority. Does anybody know the origin for this proposed term?? Given the ambiguity, surely it has to go? Ian Cairns 23:00, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Bilion

According to billion and Fowler, 'billion' can mean both 10^9 and 10^12 in the UK. Best to not mention it in the table headers -- Tarquin 08:57, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

The 10^12 meaning is utterly obsolete in the whole English-speaking world. As this is the English Wikipedia, the "long scale" column should really be removed to prevent needless confusion. – Smyth 13:02, 27 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Bogus SI prefixes

The category Category:Bogus SI prefixes contains a whole bunch of stubs that look to me like they're unlikely to grow. Anyone object if I merge them all into Bogus SI prefix or something similar? Bryan 05:33, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Mega

How popular of a belief is it that it is okay to use mega- as a numerical prefix for a million (as if it belonged in the regular Greek numerical prefixes article)?? It is not in there; its literal meaning is "great". 66.32.255.51 01:29, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Never heard someone use it. Chemicals pentane, hexane, ...., mega-ane? No way, you'd call the latter simply polyethene. I can't think of a situation right now where it could be used. A numerical prefix suggests that it is exact (1,000,000 and not 1,000,002) which usually doesn't make much sense for big numbers. Han-Kwang (talk) 12:08, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

cc

Do doctors in American medical soap operas always say "cc" (short for "cubic centimetre") to mean "millilitre" because they don't want the audience to know they're using a metric unit? At least here in Finland, "millilitre" is a much more widely known unit than "cubic centimetre", even though they're the same thing. — JIP | Talk 17:17, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

No, all doctors in America use cc. Cburnett 17:25, May 1, 2005 (UTC)

Why do they call it cc instead of millilitres, then? — JIP | Talk 18:52, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

I wouldn't tak that as an established fact based on one person's comments. For example, what specific context do you have in mind? Liquid drugs are usually labeled in milliliters, and so prescribed. What's used for capacity of syringes? For cranial capacity? The more prevalant usage can be different in different contexts.

You are probably just a kid who doesn't remember the days when we had to learn that milliliters and cubic centimeters are different units. Some of the usage habits today go back to those days when a distinction was sometimes made for clarity, even though very few measurements were ever precise enough to tell he difference. That's just one of the factors that come into play--but fooling the audience into thinking they are not using a metric units is one of the least plausible factors. Your theory doesn't hold any water. Americans know that it is a metric unit, whether it is "cc" or "cm³" or "mL". Gene Nygaard 19:23, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

Actually, I've even seen liquid drugs measured in miligrams. In particular, morphine. Measuring liquids in cc's and solids in mg's are probably the most prevalent. I've *never* had a prescription filled in grains or ounces. :) But whatever is used and why, it has little to do with "fooling the audience". Cburnett 22:46, May 1, 2005 (UTC)

If close to 30 years is "just a kid" to you, then I agree. But no, I don't remember ever learning that cubic centimetres and millilitres are any different. — JIP | Talk 04:27, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

From 1901 until 1964, 1 ml was approximately 1.000028 cm³. The liter was then defined as the volume of one kilogram of water at its maximum density, rather than as a cubic decimeter.Gene Nygaard 04:40, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Figures, seeing as I wasn't born in 1964. My parents hadn't even met each other then. The bit about fooling the audience was pure speculation on my part. — JIP | Talk 14:48, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

Non-standard prefix abbreviations?

What about non-standard abbreviations, such as "mc" or "u" for "micro"? --Carnildo 17:41, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

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