Xref: utzoo sci.electronics:8400 rec.ham-radio:14500
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!bionet!ames!vsi1!wyse!mips!vaso
From: vaso@mips.COM (Vaso Bovan)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,rec.ham-radio
Subject: Tesla vs gauss, and other obscure units
Message-ID: <30339@buckaroo.mips.COM>
Date: 30 Oct 89 08:22:07 GMT
References: <1914@sactoh0.UUCP> <28601@buckaroo.mips.COM> <1989Oct29.174631.12960@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <1989Oct29.224736.2838@utzoo.uucp> <851@ariel.unm.edu>
Reply-To: vaso@mips.COM (Vaso Bovan)
Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 13

In article <851@ariel.unm.edu> ee5391aa@hydra.unm.edu.UUCP (Duke McMullan n5gax) writes:
>
>Consider this one: how many hams and other electronikers do you know who pro-
>nounce dB dee-bee, and how many of them actually know it means decibel? Then,
>how many of them have ever heard of a bel? For the real joker, how many of 'em
>know what a bel is? It's a lot easier (IMHO) to explain bels than decibels.
>Think again: how often do you see something rated in tens of decibels, rather
>than bels? WHY?
>
The bel is of rather recent vintage, 1923 [ A Dictionary of Scientific Units,
4th Ed., Chapman & Hall, 1980].  This source contains the statement that "in
continental Europe, the neper is used instead of the bel."  Is this true,
European readers ?