Abstract
THIS letter is intended to be provocative. A volt (or ampere) is denoted V (or A): a millivolt (or milliampere) mV (or mA): a microvolt (or microampere) V (or A). A farad is known as F, a microfarad as F (though misguided people write it mfd. or mF., which, if anything, should mean millifarad): a micromicrofarad (1012 farad) is F. A millihenry is mH, a microhenry H. A gram is g., a milligram is mg., but some (and not the least worthy) biochemists use a symbol which few others understand, and call a microgram not g. but . A second (of time) has the symbol sec. (not ): a millisecond is msec.: a microsecond is sec. Why do physiologists (and they alone) persist in using the symbol to represent, not—as it might less unsuitably do in view of and —a microsecond, but a millisecond? And why are they permitted, instead of writing 7 msec. (which others could understand) to use 7, or 7 sigmas (in America) or 7 sigmata (in Oxford) ?
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HILL, A. Units and Symbols. Nature 136, 222 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136222a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136222a0
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