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From: roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Pronunciation of pico
Keywords: pico, pronunciation
Message-ID: <1990Sep22.142115.8119@phri.nyu.edu>
Date: 22 Sep 90 14:21:15 GMT
References: <02444.AA02444@lemsys.UUCP> <4531@qip.UUCP> <1990Sep21.080147.4905@sq.sq.com>
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Organization: Public Health Research Institute, New York City
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rph@sq.sq.com (Pontus Hedman (VE3RPH)) writes:
> If you're talking picofarads (about the only picos you'll find in
> electronics), they were always called a "pikes" in my TV tech days.

	We always pronounced pF as "puff", as in "try putting 100 puff in
there and see it stops oscillating".  uF were indeed "mikes".  Don't know
why they weren't "muff", since that would have made for lots of bad sexist
jokes.  I once saw a schematic with nF on it for nano-farads.  Had me so
confused, I tracked down the guy who drew the drawing and made sure it
wasn't a typo.
--
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
roy@alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy
"Arcane?  Did you say arcane?  It wouldn't be Unix if it wasn't arcane!"