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Damn, I was really hoping bronto or hella would get some traction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_prefix#Unofficial_prefixes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
by Octoth0rpe 4y ago
Damn, I was really hoping bronto or hella would get some traction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_prefix#Unofficial_prefixes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_prefix#Unofficial_prefixe...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hella#SI_prefix https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hella#SI_prefix
- foxyv 4y ago> However metric prefixes need to be shortened to just their first letter—and B and H were already taken, ruling out bronto and hella.
- wlesieutre 4y agoLessons learned from milli and mega. Oops!
- Aardwolf 4y agoNo problem there, SI prefixes are case sensitive. But micro, on the other hand...
- aikinai 4y agoMicro is a μ, so it’s fine too.
- celeritascelery 4y agoIn practice people seem to use “u” instead
- wlesieutre 4y agoSo what I'm hearing is we could've used hella and given it a greek letter
- leephillips 4y agoFunniest comment I’ve seen in a while.
- thaumasiotes 4y agoNot while using the standard Greek alphabet. There is no letter for the sound /h/; it is represented as a diacritic mark applied to the first letter of a word.
- schoen 4y agoMaybe we could have called it ἑ, like 10 ἑb = 10 hellabits.
- thaumasiotes 4y ago(For completeness, aspiration is not strictly restricted to the beginning of a word in classical-to-Byzantine Greek. It might be represented in one of three ways: - At the beginning of a word, according to Byzantine convention, it is represented by an aspiration mark, discussed above. This can only occur if the word begins with a vowel, or with R. (All words beginning with R are aspirated.) - Following a /p/, /t/, or /k/ sound, aspiration is represented by mutating the letter into an aspirated form. Unaspirated π becomes aspirated φ, τ becomes θ, κ becomes χ. By the time we're talking about Byzantine Greek, the "aspirated" letters have mostly mutated into other sounds. But for ancient Ancient Greek, they are aspirated forms. - Doubled Rs have something special going on with them, and the Byzantines use a diacritic mark on the second R even though, obviously, it cannot occur at the beginning of a word. Again there is no contrast between "aspirated" and "unaspirated" double R; the aspiration is mandatory. As you move into earlier stages of Greek, you lose the standardization of the alphabet; there are plenty of Greek inscriptions where the sound is represented by the glyph H.)
- wlesieutre 4y agoThanks for this, I wasn’t expecting to learn anything about Greek today!
- 4y ago
- shadowofneptune 4y agoμ is avoided in medicine for being difficult to represent in writing and in computer systems. It's also a source of confusion and error. https://www.ismp.org/recommendations/error-prone-abbreviations-list https://www.ismp.org/recommendations/error-prone-abbreviatio... > Error-Prone Abbreviations, Symbols, and Dose Designations: > µg > Intended Meaning: Microgram Misinterpretation: Mistaken as mg Best Practice: Use mcg
- euroderf 4y agoDekaDeciFail.
- anticensor 4y agoCyrillic small be (б) and Greek small chi (χ) could have been used instead.
- adastra22 4y agoThere are obvious problems with both those prefixes.
- ASalazarMX 4y agoLet's propose ñoñograms then, seems like anything goes.
- krallja 4y agoCould get some cool abbreviations too, like のg and 노g.
- madcaptenor 4y agohow is B taken?
- lifthrasiir 4y agoByte, as per ISO/IEC 80000 (which includes SI in the Part 1).
- thaumasiotes 4y agoByte's not a prefix. Is it a problem for anyone when millimeters are written "mm"?
- lifthrasiir 4y agoI don't know. Maybe new metric prefixes are subject to tighter requirements, while older prefixes like milli- are here to stay.
- brewmarche 4y agoUnits can be multiplied though. If N were a prefix you couldn’t distinguish Newtonmetres from N many metres I think older prefixes are just grandfathered in
- MayeulC 4y agoWell, you don't have to use a dingle letter either. Deca is da.
- mxuribe 4y agoYeah hella would have been great!