h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Si Prefixes - A19386895
Author: JozCoz {Now President of the H2G2 Nintendo fan club} - U1580607

I have written this entry to help other people who have the misfortune to be forced to find this out for school work... I'm nice like that!

A list of Si prefixes is not enough for an Edited Entry. You need to include information about what a Si prefix is and why they are used.

I#m with Mr Dreadful here, the list dosn't tell me anything, I'm non the wiser now.

So, how would I put that?

Great idea for a guide entry - but you need to make it into something readable.

Can you find out the derivation of each of these prefixes, for one thing. For example 'kilo' comes from the Greek 'khilioi' (thousand). I'd be fascinated to learn about the others.

Can you mention when they were introduced - I think the French invented the metric system in 1795.

If you need any help, just holler.

Icy

One other thing - what sort of things do we measure in those ridiculously large and small units?

I came across Petabytes the other day in the course of my work - I guess we'll all have Petabyte memory sticks in a few years time.

yeah and a few years after that probably yotta bytes as well

p.s. help please...

I'll try and find a few links for you...

cheers

The best way to do an Entry is to assume that the reader knows nothing about the subject... can't offer any more help though as I'd never heard of a Si prefix until today!

I'll add some more. Come back in a couple of days and see what you think...

Thanks for that, Mr. D, as usual, I assumed I was the only one.
What does Si stand for? You could start by explaining that.

Well for derivations, you could try Ask Oxford: example for peta- http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/peta?view=uk This one's an alteration of 'penta', Greek for 'five'.

Then there's the Online Etymology Dictionary: example for pico- http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=pico&searchmode=none This one comes from the same root as the word 'beak'. Already, something we didn't know...

Here's a German site with some derivations: http://www.hilmar-klaus.de/potenzprobleme.htm

And one in English: http://members.optus.net/alexey/prefSI.xhtml

I think this is the SI site (BIPM): http://www.bipm.org/en/si/si_brochure/chapter3/prefixes.html I haven't dug around, but you may find some interesting stuff in the minutes, etc...

Hope this helps! Drop me a note if I can help you any further.

Icy

From the BIPM site:

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It should be SI rather than Si. SI stands for Système Internationale, doesn't it?

I'm pretty sure that centi, deci, deka and hecto are not SI. They're part of the metric system but official SI units.

There is already an Edited Entry on 'Units of Measurement' at A471476, which discusses SI units.

So there is! It needs updating, as yotta, zepto, etc are official now.

There may still be room for an entry on these prefixes, but it would obviously need a lot of additional material - history, derivation, usage, etc.

Hi there,
Do you have any room in your nintendo club for a 42 yr old mummy who has a bit of an Animal Crossing fixation?
Hope so!!

Definetly! Just subscribe to the conversations.