Rude units

Stories from Physics for 11-14 14-16 IOP RESOURCES

Austin Sendek, a physics student at the University of California has started a campaign to establish ‘hella’ as the SI prefix for 10 27. In response, B Todd Huffman wrote a letter to Physics World, suggesting ‘tini’ (pronounced with an ‘ee’ sound) for 10 -27, insi (pronounced ‘eensey’) for 10 -30 and winsi (pronounced ‘weensey’) for 10 -33.

He concluded, “I have tried to think of prefixes that would come in on the high end beyond ‘hella’ but unfortunately I could think of nothing that could not be interpreted as a rude word.”

References

Limit Less Campaign

Support our manifesto for change

The IOP wants to support young people to fulfil their potential by doing physics. Please sign the manifesto today so that we can show our politicians there is widespread support for improving equity and inclusion across the education sector.

Sign today