Xref: utzoo sci.electronics:8427 rec.ham-radio:14577
Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!bu-cs!mirror!frog!john
From: john@frog.UUCP (John Woods)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,rec.ham-radio
Subject: Re: New subject: Tesla vs gauss, and other obscure units
Message-ID: <2231@frog.UUCP>
Date: 1 Nov 89 01:10:00 GMT
References: <1914@sactoh0.UUCP> <28601@buckaroo.mips.COM> <851@ariel.unm.edu>
Followup-To: sci.electronics
Organization: Misanthropes-R-Us
Lines: 17

In article <851@ariel.unm.edu>, ee5391aa@hydra.unm.edu (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?

Now hol' on thar!  *I* pronounce it "dee bee", and I *know* that it means
one-tenth of a bel.  How one pronounces a unit often has more to do with
convenience than with knowledge of the underlying unit (just TRY to tell
me you've never referred to a "5 puff capacitor" :-).
> 
> Habit, I suspect, coupled with the natural conservatism that we all possess.
> This will change. How many people do you know who know the peta- and exa-
> prefixes, and the femto- and atto- prefixes?
>
I do (despite a highly embarrasing article recently in which I interchanged
peta and exa...:-).  Two habits I do refuse to part with, however, are "mhos"
and "cycles [per second]" (especially the former).  "Mho"s are not only
meaningful, but FUN as well.