megaHertz or milihertz

[Tony Roe]

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

MHz = MegaHertz = 1000000Hz
mHz = milliHertz = .0000001Hz

It is unfortunate that such a large proportion of the internet community (and
the PC sales community for that matter) don't understand this, as it perpetuates
confusion. But at least we can usually guess when someone has incorrectly used
mHz instead of MHz.

There also used to be an understanding (though not a standard) that B = byte and
b = bit (eg kb/s = kilobits/s, kB/s = kilobytes/s), but unfortunately that too
seems to now be totally ignored, with the result that it is impossible to tell
just what most such abbreviated specs actually mean.

Regards,
Tony (remove "_" from email address to reply)

[Jonathan Kirwan]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 10:38:09 +1000, Tony Roe

Post by Tony Roe

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

MHz = MegaHertz = 1000000Hz
mHz = milliHertz = .0000001Hz

Hmm. Try again? So you imagine that mHz is 1.0E-7 Hertz??

Post by Tony Roe
It is unfortunate that such a large proportion of the internet community (and
the PC sales community for that matter) don't understand this, as it perpetuates
confusion.
<snip>

Calling mHz a ten-millionth of a Hertz would indeed be
confusing. Just as a millimeter is a thousandth of a meter, a
mHz is a thousandth of a Hertz. .001Hz. Not a millionth or a
ten-millionth (as you said above.)

Jon

[Keith R. Williams]

Post by Jonathan Kirwan
On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 10:38:09 +1000, Tony Roe

Post by Tony Roe

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

MHz = MegaHertz = 1000000Hz
mHz = milliHertz = .0000001Hz

Hmm. Try again? So you imagine that mHz is 1.0E-7 Hertz??

Sure, but as long as you're picking nits, the term is "hertz".
Proper names are not capitalized in SI, in honor of the person.
The abbreviations are, however. Thus it is a megahertz or 1MHz.

[Tony Roe]

Post by Keith R. Williams

Post by Jonathan Kirwan
On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 10:38:09 +1000, Tony Roe

Post by Tony Roe

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

MHz = MegaHertz = 1000000Hz
mHz = milliHertz = .0000001Hz

Hmm. Try again? So you imagine that mHz is 1.0E-7 Hertz??

Sure, but as long as you're picking nits, the term is "hertz".
Proper names are not capitalized in SI, in honor of the person.
The abbreviations are, however. Thus it is a megahertz or 1MHz.

Now that's something I didn't know. Thanks. So neither the prefix nor the base
unit is capitalized in the expanded form of any SI unit (eg kilopascal, megohm,
etc)?
Regards,
Tony (remove "_" from email address to reply)

[Jonathan Kirwan]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 22:10:13 -0400, Keith R. Williams

Post by Keith R. Williams

Post by Jonathan Kirwan
On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 10:38:09 +1000, Tony Roe

Post by Tony Roe

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

MHz = MegaHertz = 1000000Hz
mHz = milliHertz = .0000001Hz

Hmm. Try again? So you imagine that mHz is 1.0E-7 Hertz??

Sure, but as long as you're picking nits, the term is "hertz".
Proper names are not capitalized in SI, in honor of the person.
The abbreviations are, however. Thus it is a megahertz or 1MHz.

Not picking nits, Keith! He was representing mHz as being
something which was 4 orders of magnitude off.

Now, I might agree that hertz vs Hertz is picking nits. But
that's your beef here, not mine.

Jon

[Keith R. Williams]

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 22:19:21 -0400, Keith R. Williams

Post by Jonathan Kirwan
On Mon, 28 Jul 2003 22:10:13 -0400, Keith R. Williams

Post by Keith R. Williams

Post by Jonathan Kirwan
On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 10:38:09 +1000, Tony Roe

Post by Tony Roe

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

MHz = MegaHertz = 1000000Hz
mHz = milliHertz = .0000001Hz

Hmm. Try again? So you imagine that mHz is 1.0E-7 Hertz??

Sure, but as long as you're picking nits, the term is "hertz".
Proper names are not capitalized in SI, in honor of the person.
The abbreviations are, however. Thus it is a megahertz or 1MHz.

Not picking nits, Keith! He was representing mHz as being
something which was 4 orders of magnitude off.

Sure, I saw that. I thought it obvious.

That's nice. I'm sure it was, to you. A few might take it
wrong and it's worth saying something.

Post by Jonathan Kirwan
Now, I might agree that hertz vs Hertz is picking nits. But
that's your beef here, not mine.

Well, I thought the mHz/uHz thing (even with another order of
magnitude) as a brain-fart.

It was -- but that's known in 20/20 hindsight. Beforehand, one
cannot know. But like I said, there are a few who may walk away
with the wrong idea.

However you were also wrong. As
long as you were pointing out someone else' mistake, you deserved
the same.

Thanks for the correction. I enjoyed it. The mistake I made
isn't of the kind that may lead to misunderstanding, though, and
thus not of the same caliber. But nice try.

Perghaps I should have added some smileys? Really!?

[Tony Roe]

Post by Jonathan Kirwan
On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 10:38:09 +1000, Tony Roe

Post by Tony Roe

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

MHz = MegaHertz = 1000000Hz
mHz = milliHertz = .0000001Hz

Hmm. Try again? So you imagine that mHz is 1.0E-7 Hertz??

Post by Tony Roe
It is unfortunate that such a large proportion of the internet community (and
the PC sales community for that matter) don't understand this, as it perpetuates
confusion.
<snip>

Calling mHz a ten-millionth of a Hertz would indeed be
confusing. Just as a millimeter is a thousandth of a meter, a
mHz is a thousandth of a Hertz. .001Hz. Not a millionth or a
ten-millionth (as you said above.)
Jon

Sorry - typo. I meant to type five "0"s.
Regards,
Tony (remove "_" from email address to reply)

[A E]

Post by Tony Roe

Post by Jonathan Kirwan
On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 10:38:09 +1000, Tony Roe

Post by Tony Roe

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

MHz = MegaHertz = 1000000Hz
mHz = milliHertz = .0000001Hz

Hmm. Try again? So you imagine that mHz is 1.0E-7 Hertz??

Post by Tony Roe
It is unfortunate that such a large proportion of the internet community (and
the PC sales community for that matter) don't understand this, as it perpetuates
confusion.
<snip>

Calling mHz a ten-millionth of a Hertz would indeed be
confusing. Just as a millimeter is a thousandth of a meter, a
mHz is a thousandth of a Hertz. .001Hz. Not a millionth or a
ten-millionth (as you said above.)
Jon

Sorry - typo. I meant to type five "0"s.

Why? That's wrong too! :)

[Tim Hubberstey]

Here is a short excerpt from "The Art of Electronics", pg 3. View it
using courier to get the table lined up.
PREFIXES
These prefixes are universally used to scale units in science and
engineering.
Multiple Prefix Symbol
10^12 tera T
10^9 giga G
10^6 mega M
10^3 kilo k
10^-3 milli m
10^-6 micro u
10^-9 nano n
10^-12 pico p
10^-15 femto f

You missed 'a' ato for 1e-18

There's more than that missing. Check this out for the most complete
list of prefixes I've ever found:

http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html

Follow the other links for everything you did (or, more likely, didn't)
want to know about units and rules of use.

[Wouter van Ooijen (www.voti.nl)]

Post by Tim Hubberstey
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html
Follow the other links for everything you did (or, more likely, didn't)
want to know about units and rules of use.

I did. ROFL! Now I know that my computer has a 300 GiB HD!


Wouter van Ooijen

-- ------------------------------------
http://www.voti.nl
PICmicro chips, programmers, consulting

[Keith R. Williams]

Post by Wouter van Ooijen (www.voti.nl)

Post by Tim Hubberstey
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html
Follow the other links for everything you did (or, more likely, didn't)
want to know about units and rules of use.

I did. ROFL! Now I know that my computer has a 300 GiB HD!

Actually, hard drives are specified in decimal units, thus you really
do have a 300GB hard drive. RAM is specified in binary units, so I do
have .5GiB of memory on this system.

[Keith R. Williams]

mentioned...

Post by Wouter van Ooijen (www.voti.nl)

Post by Tim Hubberstey
http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/prefixes.html
Follow the other links for everything you did (or, more likely, didn't)
want to know about units and rules of use.

I did. ROFL! Now I know that my computer has a 300 GiB HD!

That's right. If you guys had been checking my .sig for the last year
or more, you would have already known that.

Except that hard disks are sized by decimal bytes. This GB is
correct.

[Jim Thompson]

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

mHz = milliHertz

MHz = megaHertz

BUT

Spices often want Meg = MHz

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:[phone] | |
| Jim-***@analog_innovations.com Fax:[phone] | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

For proper E-mail replies SWAP "-" and "_"

Get Lolita Out of Debt... Add Three Inches to Your Mortgage!

[Sven Hegewisch]

Post by Tony Roe

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

mHz = milliHertz
MHz = megaHertz
BUT
Spices often want Meg = MHz

Meg applies also to ohms, farads, amps, volts etc.

Sven Hegewisch

[Pat Ford]

Post by Sven Hegewisch

Post by Tony Roe

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

mHz = milliHertz
MHz = megaHertz
BUT
Spices often want Meg = MHz

Meg applies also to ohms, farads, amps, volts etc.

and Ryan 8*)

Post by Sven Hegewisch
Sven Hegewisch

Pat

[EEng]

Post by Tony Roe

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?
roma

MHz = MegaHertz = 1000000Hz
mHz = milliHertz = .0000001Hz

Sorry, that would be 0.1uHz (microhertz) or 100nHz (nanohertz)
I think you meant .001Hz.

Post by Tony Roe
It is unfortunate that such a large proportion of the internet community (and
the PC sales community for that matter) don't understand this, as it perpetuates
confusion. But at least we can usually guess when someone has incorrectly used
mHz instead of MHz.
There also used to be an understanding (though not a standard) that B = byte and
b = bit (eg kb/s = kilobits/s, kB/s = kilobytes/s), but unfortunately that too
seems to now be totally ignored, with the result that it is impossible to tell
just what most such abbreviated specs actually mean.
Regards,
Tony (remove "_" from email address to reply)

[Jim Backus]

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?

The mega and milli have been done to death.

millihertz is a valid unit - possibly used in biometrics or vibrations
such as those from earthquakes and volcanos

[roma]

Post by Jim Backus

Which is the right abbreviation for megaHertz ? mHz or MHz
does mHz = miliHertz , is there such a term ?

The mega and milli have been done to death.
millihertz is a valid unit - possibly used in biometrics or

vibrations

Post by Jim Backus
such as those from earthquakes and volcanos

Thank you all for your contributions , I guess we all learned something
. Must not to offend the gurus .
Roma

[Jonathan Kirwan]

Must not to offend the gurus.

It's important to think precisely. Sometimes, sloppy use of
words reflects a process of sloppy, imprecise thinking. Not
always, of course. But it's why some people want to get the
"terms straight," when communicating. It's important.

On the other had, as the saying goes:

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored
by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Essays, "Self-Reliance," 1841.

So the main thing is that you're thinking precisely and, when
trying to communicate, working to present your clear thinking
just as precisely as you think. But it can be carried to
distraction. And that's where you can fairly draw the line.

Jon