On 2004 Jul 17 , at 1:55 AM, Ezra Steinberg wrote:
I assume the correct form is 2000 kelvins (plural) or 2 kilokelvins (again,
plural), right?
Surely Ezra is right!
I can find nothing in "The International System of Units (SI)" that deals with this point, but a unit is a noun and therefore would be pluralized according to ordinary rules for pluaralization in whatever language is used. In Engish, that means that a temperature change of 1 K could be written out as "one kelvin" but that a rise of 2 K would be " two kelvins", etc.
Although "The International System of Units (SI)" book does not seem to address this point directly, we all refer to "two metres" and "two grams" and "two seconds". Just because the book does not deal with the issue doesn't mean we're supposed to say "two metre, "two gram" or "two second"!*
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
*PS
Of course we can use the size as an adjective, in which situation (in English) we would drop the "s" and say "a two metre pole", "a two gram sample" or "a two second interval".
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Make it simple; Make it Metric
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