4 ms·

Micro is a μ, so it’s fine too.

by aikinai 4y ago

celeritascelery 4y ago
In practice people seem to use “u” instead
wlesieutre 4y ago
So what I'm hearing is we could've used hella and given it a greek letter
- leephillips 4y ago
  Funniest comment I’ve seen in a while.
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  Not 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 ago
    Maybe 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 ago
      Thanks for this, I wasn’t expecting to learn anything about Greek today!
  - yellowapple 4y ago
    So just put a diacritic over the unit symbol; problem solved.
shadowofneptune 4y ago
μ 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

Micro is a μ, so it’s fine too.

celeritascelery 4y ago

In practice people seem to use “u” instead

wlesieutre 4y ago

So what I'm hearing is we could've used hella and given it a greek letter

leephillips 4y ago
Funniest comment I’ve seen in a while.
thaumasiotes 4y ago
Not 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 ago
  Maybe 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 ago
    Thanks for this, I wasn’t expecting to learn anything about Greek today!
- yellowapple 4y ago
  So just put a diacritic over the unit symbol; problem solved.

shadowofneptune 4y ago

μ 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