Article 60YDS Speculation on new SI prefixes

Speculation on new SI prefixes

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John
from John D. Cook on (#60YDS)

The SI prefixes giga and tera were adopted in 1960. The prefixes eta and peta were adopted in 1975, and zetta and yotta were adopted in 1991. Following this 15-year cadence, we should have adopted a few more prefixes by now. If we ever do introduce new prefixes, what might they be?

The latest prefixes follow this pattern: the prefix for 103n is some form of the name for n in some language. The prefixes peta for 1015 and exa for 1018 come from the Greek names for five and six, and the prefixes zetta for 1021 and yotta 1024 are based on the Latin names for seven and eight. If we stick with this pattern, and stick with Latin, the prefix for 1027 should be novem or some variant, and the prefix for 1030 should be decem or some variant [1].

Maybe some day we'll speak of novemabytes of data, or a calculation requiring novemaflops of computing. There's not much need to speak of novemameters since the observable universe is about a yottameter across.

The mass of the sun is about 2 * 1033 grams. We could call that a couple undecimagrams. The mass of the Milky Way is about 3 * 1045 grams, or three quindedimagrams.

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[1] There's no need for more prefixes; this post is just for fun.

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