4 ms·

> Not watts minus hours as W-h would suggest. That's not what that would suggest to most people. https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/checklist.html https://phy

> Not watts minus hours as W-h would suggest. That's not what that would suggest to most people. https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/checklist.html https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/checklist.html "A space or half-high dot is used to signify the multiplication of units." In practice, I'm pretty sure people often use a short dash because a half-high dot is hard to type on a keyboard. I also agree the dash is unnecessary, though.

vel0city 3y ago
If the short dash means multiply, what symbol do you use for subtraction? What would the majority of people answer with this: 2-2 = ? If I put 2-2 into Google, is it going to return 0 or 4? If you're going to be pedantic, at least write it properly.
- coder543 3y ago
  You can’t add or subtract units, so it’s not a relevant question. The dash gets used for many things. It is also used to hyphenate words, but people don’t ask how you can subtract two words. > If you're going to be pedantic, at least write it properly. I didn’t write it. I’m just explaining a commonly-used convention since you seem unfamiliar with it.
  - vel0city 3y ago
    If using the - symbol was commonly meaning multiply, wouldn't Google say 4? Using - to mean multiplication is absolutely not common parlance.
    - coder543 3y ago
      No, because I’m only talking about unit notation, just like hyphenated words do not mean subtraction of the words. Why would Google follow unit notation rules for something that is completely irrelevant to unit notation? If we’re going to be maximally pedantic, you will notice that “Wh” is also wrong, and should instead be “W h” with a space. That’s what NIST says the standard is. Why are you writing it incorrectly? It’s almost as if different groups of people have different notational conventions. I already agreed it is nonstandard, but your notation is also questionable according to the standards for unit multiplication. It just happens to be a commonly accepted convention. Here is an example of Wolfram Alpha handling this dash unit notation: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%283W-h%29%2F%281h%29+in+watts https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%283W-h%29%2F%281h%29+i... I guess someone should tell Wolfram Alpha they forgot to “subtract the units”, whatever that means.
- stetrain 3y ago
  Do you think than a short-term plan is a subtraction of the word 'term' from the word 'short'? Hyphenated words and phrases are not mathematical subtraction. > Different authors and different journals utilize different spacing and separations for SI units. When writing out units, a hyphen (-) or a space is usually used between the words to represent multiplication (as in newton-meter or newton meter). https://www.aje.com/arc/editing-tip-formatting-compound-si-units/# https://www.aje.com/arc/editing-tip-formatting-compound-si-u... > In both English and in French, when the name of a derived unit is formed from the names of individual units by multiplication, then either a space or a hyphen is used to separate the names of the individual units. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/169950/hyphenating-complex-physical-units https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/169950/hyphenati...

vel0city 3y ago

If the short dash means multiply, what symbol do you use for subtraction? What would the majority of people answer with this: 2-2 = ? If I put 2-2 into Google, is it going to return 0 or 4? If you're going to be pedantic, at least write it properly.

coder543 3y ago
You can’t add or subtract units, so it’s not a relevant question. The dash gets used for many things. It is also used to hyphenate words, but people don’t ask how you can subtract two words. > If you're going to be pedantic, at least write it properly. I didn’t write it. I’m just explaining a commonly-used convention since you seem unfamiliar with it.
- vel0city 3y ago
  If using the - symbol was commonly meaning multiply, wouldn't Google say 4? Using - to mean multiplication is absolutely not common parlance.
  - coder543 3y ago
    No, because I’m only talking about unit notation, just like hyphenated words do not mean subtraction of the words. Why would Google follow unit notation rules for something that is completely irrelevant to unit notation? If we’re going to be maximally pedantic, you will notice that “Wh” is also wrong, and should instead be “W h” with a space. That’s what NIST says the standard is. Why are you writing it incorrectly? It’s almost as if different groups of people have different notational conventions. I already agreed it is nonstandard, but your notation is also questionable according to the standards for unit multiplication. It just happens to be a commonly accepted convention. Here is an example of Wolfram Alpha handling this dash unit notation: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%283W-h%29%2F%281h%29+in+watts https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%283W-h%29%2F%281h%29+i... I guess someone should tell Wolfram Alpha they forgot to “subtract the units”, whatever that means.
stetrain 3y ago
Do you think than a short-term plan is a subtraction of the word 'term' from the word 'short'? Hyphenated words and phrases are not mathematical subtraction. > Different authors and different journals utilize different spacing and separations for SI units. When writing out units, a hyphen (-) or a space is usually used between the words to represent multiplication (as in newton-meter or newton meter). https://www.aje.com/arc/editing-tip-formatting-compound-si-units/# https://www.aje.com/arc/editing-tip-formatting-compound-si-u... > In both English and in French, when the name of a derived unit is formed from the names of individual units by multiplication, then either a space or a hyphen is used to separate the names of the individual units. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/169950/hyphenating-complex-physical-units https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/169950/hyphenati...