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Is anyone seriously using prefixes above Giga, besides for counting bytes or boasting numbers in popular science articles? In physics, in practice you either s

Is anyone seriously using prefixes above Giga, besides for counting bytes or boasting numbers in popular science articles? In physics, in practice you either state the number in exponential notation and don't care abut it or for brevity introduce a more appropriate unit: barns (10⁻²⁸ m²) and electronvolts (10⁻¹⁹ J) in nuclear physics or solar mass (~10³⁰ kg) in astrophysics, etc.

traxys 4y ago
In High Performance Computing the most recent Top1 machine ils counted in Exaflops, so there's quite some talk aubout exascale computing.
picometer 4y ago
Terawatts come to mind.
jdrek1 4y ago
> electronvolts (10⁻¹⁹ J) in nuclear physics CERN is at TeV ranges so yes, even in different units we use high prefixes. Might not come up in your every day small talk but they are used.
burkaman 4y ago
> counting bytes or boasting numbers in popular science articles Why are these not serious usages? They are concepts that need to be communicated, that's what words are for.
- xboxnolifes 4y ago
  Boasting in popular science articles with large prefixes is hardly better communication compared to scientific notation. If the prefixes aren't commonly used (anything above tera/peta really isn't), then the majority of people have no frame of reference for what it is any more than it being "a big number".
Symbiote 4y ago
Electricity production for a country is reasonable measured in TWh, and I think I've seen this in newspapers discussing energy/gas in Europe. But from Wikipedia: > In the United Kingdom ... Demand for electricity in 2014 was 34.42 GW on average (301.7 TWh over the year) coming from a total electricity generation of 335.0 TWh. We aren't there yet for power: > The synchronous grid of Continental Europe is the largest synchronous electrical grid (by connected power) in the world. ... In 2009, 667 GW of production capacity was connected to the grid
texaslonghorn5 4y ago
petawatt laser
COGlory 4y ago
When I count viruses, I usually just say "ten to the ninth" instead of giga tbh.
none_to_remain 4y ago
The phrase "terahertz radiation" is used to discuss that band, between microwaves and infrared.

traxys 4y ago

In High Performance Computing the most recent Top1 machine ils counted in Exaflops, so there's quite some talk aubout exascale computing.

picometer 4y ago

Terawatts come to mind.

jdrek1 4y ago

> electronvolts (10⁻¹⁹ J) in nuclear physics CERN is at TeV ranges so yes, even in different units we use high prefixes. Might not come up in your every day small talk but they are used.

burkaman 4y ago

> counting bytes or boasting numbers in popular science articles Why are these not serious usages? They are concepts that need to be communicated, that's what words are for.

xboxnolifes 4y ago
Boasting in popular science articles with large prefixes is hardly better communication compared to scientific notation. If the prefixes aren't commonly used (anything above tera/peta really isn't), then the majority of people have no frame of reference for what it is any more than it being "a big number".

Symbiote 4y ago

Electricity production for a country is reasonable measured in TWh, and I think I've seen this in newspapers discussing energy/gas in Europe. But from Wikipedia: > In the United Kingdom ... Demand for electricity in 2014 was 34.42 GW on average (301.7 TWh over the year) coming from a total electricity generation of 335.0 TWh. We aren't there yet for power: > The synchronous grid of Continental Europe is the largest synchronous electrical grid (by connected power) in the world. ... In 2009, 667 GW of production capacity was connected to the grid

texaslonghorn5 4y ago

petawatt laser

COGlory 4y ago

When I count viruses, I usually just say "ten to the ninth" instead of giga tbh.

none_to_remain 4y ago

The phrase "terahertz radiation" is used to discuss that band, between microwaves and infrared.