I ran into this uppercase "K" problem many years ago when I kept trying to write "KHz" in documents and the word processing group kept sending the finished text to me using "kHz". I finally got the WP manager to show me their style manual, which referenced back to, IIRC, Mil-Std-800 (a standard on government documents). Sure enough, the US Gov said the right way to do it was to use "kHz". The WP manager said something about confusing people who might think I was trying to say "degrees Kelvinhertz". (Honest!)
But I kept wondering if maybe the Mil Standard had a typo (from what I had seen of Mil Standards, typos were not unusual). Maybe nobody had ever noticed that before! Gee, if I were able to get that fixed, I could make a little change for the better in this world. And then everybody in the world could properly use the more rational "KHz". So let's revisit my view of how everything really should be. First, 10^^3 should certainly remain kilo, but should use an uppercase K, since the unit is on the positive exponential side of zero. So, we have KHz. This is non-negotiable. The unfortunates who have been using kilometer instead of Kilometer will be grandfathered with a special dispensation for its continued use, but these folks will eventually die off, leaving everyone else in harmonious agreement. Next, we should fix that vexing 10^^-3 notation. Yes, the milli, which is forever getting confused with the micro. The only sensible thing to do is to drop the milli in favor of a -3 unit which is harmonized with the +3 unit. I think we should call this -3 unit the killi. And since it is on the negative exponential side of zero, it should always be lowercase. Thus, the killifarad, 1*10^^-3 Farads. Or the killihertz, or the killimeter. Well, it makes sense to me. Regards, Ed :-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-) Ed Price ed.pr...@cubic.com Electromagnetic Compatibility Lab Cubic Defense Systems San Diego, CA. USA 858-505-2780 (Voice) 858-505-1583 (Fax) Military & Avionics EMC Services Is Our Specialty Shake-Bake-Shock - Metrology - Reliability Analysis :-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-) --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to majord...@ieee.org with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to ed.pr...@cubic.com, jim_bac...@monarch.com, ri...@sdd.hp.com, or roger.volgst...@compaq.com (the list administrators).
