3 ms·

kg is the base SI unit, so 1000 kg is more natural than 1 Mg. The fact that kg is the base unit does not make much sense except for historical reasons when the

kg is the base SI unit, so 1000 kg is more natural than 1 Mg. The fact that kg is the base unit does not make much sense except for historical reasons when the choice was made. A very bad choice if you ask me.

Ekaros 5y ago
I blame the French... We could have had it all properly and use grave... But no, too big... One of the few ugly bits of SI system. In general otherwise it all just works together so nicely. Then again it's not only weird unit we have, dB is the other one. Ofc, units are nicer to handle, but still... Not that bell isn't weird unit anyway.
- Y_Y 5y ago
  I agree that bel is a weird unit. To be fair, it's not "in" SI, but just "accepted for use with". I'd also argue that candela and mole are weird for other reasons, and they're SI for real.
  - BrandoElFollito 5y ago
    The mole is I think for historical reasons, to not piss off chemists too much.
- BrandoElFollito 5y ago
  I did not know that we were, again, to blame. But at least we have the one and only official and beautiful kilogramme and meter prototype in Sèvres, near Paris. And, again the French way, it is not possible to see them!
nybble41 5y ago
They may call the kilogram the base unit, but in practice no one talks about millikilograms (just "grams") or microkilograms (just "milligrams"). The gram might be formally defined in terms of a 1 kg physical mass, but for the purpose of SI prefixes the gram is the real base unit and there is nothing wrong with saying 1 Mg instead of 1000 kg.
- BrandoElFollito 5y ago
  Also nobody says 1 kilokilogramme (1000 kg). This isaid, the mass base unit in SI is really the kg, even if g would be natural (and indeed people will say 1 g instead of 1 millikilogram). I was always annoyed by kg being the base unit (and I had to drag this suffering throughout my PhD in physics) but this thread opened my eyes on the possibility to use "compensating" prefixes on the kg (millikilogram to say gram) - it is a shame I did not think about that before to drive everyone crazy :)
  - imtringued 5y ago
    Everyone says 1000kg = 1 ton though.

Ekaros 5y ago

I blame the French... We could have had it all properly and use grave... But no, too big... One of the few ugly bits of SI system. In general otherwise it all just works together so nicely. Then again it's not only weird unit we have, dB is the other one. Ofc, units are nicer to handle, but still... Not that bell isn't weird unit anyway.

Y_Y 5y ago
I agree that bel is a weird unit. To be fair, it's not "in" SI, but just "accepted for use with". I'd also argue that candela and mole are weird for other reasons, and they're SI for real.
- BrandoElFollito 5y ago
  The mole is I think for historical reasons, to not piss off chemists too much.
BrandoElFollito 5y ago
I did not know that we were, again, to blame. But at least we have the one and only official and beautiful kilogramme and meter prototype in Sèvres, near Paris. And, again the French way, it is not possible to see them!

nybble41 5y ago

They may call the kilogram the base unit, but in practice no one talks about millikilograms (just "grams") or microkilograms (just "milligrams"). The gram might be formally defined in terms of a 1 kg physical mass, but for the purpose of SI prefixes the gram is the real base unit and there is nothing wrong with saying 1 Mg instead of 1000 kg.

BrandoElFollito 5y ago
Also nobody says 1 kilokilogramme (1000 kg). This isaid, the mass base unit in SI is really the kg, even if g would be natural (and indeed people will say 1 g instead of 1 millikilogram). I was always annoyed by kg being the base unit (and I had to drag this suffering throughout my PhD in physics) but this thread opened my eyes on the possibility to use "compensating" prefixes on the kg (millikilogram to say gram) - it is a shame I did not think about that before to drive everyone crazy :)
- imtringued 5y ago
  Everyone says 1000kg = 1 ton though.