1.
Evangelista Torricelli
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Evangelista Torricelli was born on 15 October 1608 in Rome, he invented the barometer in Florence, Italy. The firstborn child of Gaspare Ruberti and Giacoma Torricelli and his family was from Faenza in the Province of Ravenna, then part of the Papal States. His father was a worker and the family was very poor. Seeing his talents, his parents sent him to be educated in Faenza, under the care of his uncle, Jacobo, a Camaldolese monk, who first ensured that his nephew was given a sound basic education. He then entered young Torricelli into a Jesuit College in 1624, possibly the one in Faenza itself, to mathematics and philosophy until 1626, by which time his father. The uncle then sent Torricelli to Rome to study science under the Benedictine monk Benedetto Castelli, Castelli was a student of Galileo Galilei. Benedetto Castelli made experiments on running water, and he was entrusted by Pope Urban VIII with hydraulic undertakings, there is no actual evidence that Torricelli was enrolled at the university. It is almost certain that Torricelli was taught by Castelli, in exchange he worked for him as his secretary from 1626 to 1632 as a private arrangement. Because of this, Torricelli was exposed to experiments funded by Pope Urban VIII, while living in Rome, Torricelli became also the student of the brilliant mathematician, Bonaventura Cavalieri, with whom he became great friends. It was in Rome that Torricelli also became friends with two students of Castelli, Raffaello Magiotti and Antonio Nardi. Galileo referred to Torricelli, Magiotti, and Nardi affectionately as his triumvirate in Rome, although Galileo promptly invited Torricelli to visit, he did not accept until just three months before Galileos death. The reason for this was that Torricellis mother, Caterina Angetti died, after Galileos death on 8 January 1642, Grand Duke Ferdinando II de Medici asked him to succeed Galileo as the grand-ducal mathematician and chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa. Right before the appointment, Torricelli was considering returning to Rome because of there being nothing left for him in Florence, in this role he solved some of the great mathematical problems of the day, such as finding a cycloids area and center of gravity. As a result of study, he wrote the book the Opera Geometrica in which he described his observations. The book was published in 1644 and he was interested in Optics, and invented a method whereby microscopic lenses might be made of glass which could be easily melted in a lamp. As a result, he designed and built a number of telescopes and simple microscopes, several large lenses, on 11 June 1644, he famously wrote in a letter to Michelangelo Ricci, Noi viviamo sommersi nel fondo dun pelago daria. Torricelli died in Florence on 25 October 1647,10 days after his 39th birthday and he left all his belongings to his adopted son Alessandro. This early work owes much to the study of the classics, in Faenza, a statue of Torricelli was created in 1868 as a thank you for all that Torricelli had done in advancing science during his short lifetime
2.
International System of Units
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The International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system, and is the most widely used system of measurement. It comprises a coherent system of units of measurement built on seven base units, the system also establishes a set of twenty prefixes to the unit names and unit symbols that may be used when specifying multiples and fractions of the units. The system was published in 1960 as the result of an initiative began in 1948. It is based on the system of units rather than any variant of the centimetre-gram-second system. The motivation for the development of the SI was the diversity of units that had sprung up within the CGS systems, the International System of Units has been adopted by most developed countries, however, the adoption has not been universal in all English-speaking countries. The metric system was first implemented during the French Revolution with just the metre and kilogram as standards of length, in the 1830s Carl Friedrich Gauss laid the foundations for a coherent system based on length, mass, and time. In the 1860s a group working under the auspices of the British Association for the Advancement of Science formulated the requirement for a coherent system of units with base units and derived units. Meanwhile, in 1875, the Treaty of the Metre passed responsibility for verification of the kilogram, in 1921, the Treaty was extended to include all physical quantities including electrical units originally defined in 1893. The units associated with these quantities were the metre, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, in 1971, a seventh base quantity, amount of substance represented by the mole, was added to the definition of SI. On 11 July 1792, the proposed the names metre, are, litre and grave for the units of length, area, capacity. The committee also proposed that multiples and submultiples of these units were to be denoted by decimal-based prefixes such as centi for a hundredth, on 10 December 1799, the law by which the metric system was to be definitively adopted in France was passed. Prior to this, the strength of the magnetic field had only been described in relative terms. The technique used by Gauss was to equate the torque induced on a magnet of known mass by the earth’s magnetic field with the torque induced on an equivalent system under gravity. The resultant calculations enabled him to assign dimensions based on mass, length, a French-inspired initiative for international cooperation in metrology led to the signing in 1875 of the Metre Convention. Initially the convention only covered standards for the metre and the kilogram, one of each was selected at random to become the International prototype metre and International prototype kilogram that replaced the mètre des Archives and kilogramme des Archives respectively. Each member state was entitled to one of each of the prototypes to serve as the national prototype for that country. Initially its prime purpose was a periodic recalibration of national prototype metres. The official language of the Metre Convention is French and the version of all official documents published by or on behalf of the CGPM is the French-language version
3.
Barometer
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A barometer is a scientific instrument used in meteorology to measure atmospheric pressure. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather, numerous measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis to help find surface troughs, high pressure systems and frontal boundaries. Barometers and pressure altimeters are essentially the same instrument, but used for different purposes, the main exception to this is ships at sea, which can use a barometer because their elevation does not change. Due to the presence of weather systems, aircraft altimeters may need to be adjusted as they fly between regions of varying normalized atmospheric pressure. On July 27,1630, Giovanni Battista Baliani wrote a letter to Galileo Galilei explaining an experiment he had made in which a siphon, led over a hill about twenty-one meters high, failed to work. This was a restatement of the theory of horror vacui, which dates to Aristotle, galileos ideas reached Rome in December 1638 in his Discorsi. Raffaele Magiotti and Gasparo Berti were excited by these ideas, Magiotti devised such an experiment, and sometime between 1639 and 1641, Berti carried it out. The bottom end of the tube was opened, and water that had been inside of it poured out into the basin. What was most important about this experiment was that the water had left a space above it in the tube which had no intermediate contact with air to fill it up. This seemed to suggest the possibility of a vacuum existing in the space above the water, Torricelli, a friend and student of Galileo, interpreted the results of the experiments in a novel way. He proposed that the weight of the atmosphere, not a force of the vacuum. It was traditionally thought that the air did not have weight, that is. Even Galileo had accepted the weightlessness of air as a simple truth, Torricelli questioned that assumption, and instead proposed that air had weight and that it was the latter which held up the column of water. He thought that the level the water stayed at was reflective of the force of the airs weight pushing on it. In other words, he viewed the barometer as a balance, an instrument for measurement and he needed to use a liquid that was heavier than water, and from his previous association and suggestions by Galileo, he deduced by using mercury, a shorter tube could be used. With mercury, which is about 14 times heavier than water, Pascal further devised an experiment to test the Aristotelian proposition that it was vapors from the liquid that filled the space in a barometer. His experiment compared water with wine, and since the latter was considered more spiritous, Pascal performed the experiment publicly, inviting the Aristotelians to predict the outcome beforehand. The Aristotelians predicted the wine would stand lower, however, Pascal went even further to test the mechanical theory
4.
Letter case
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Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger upper case and smaller lower case in the written representation of certain languages. The writing systems that distinguish between the upper and lower case have two sets of letters, with each letter in one set usually having an equivalent in the other set. Basically, the two variants are alternative representations of the same letter, they have the same name and pronunciation. Letter case is generally applied in a fashion, with both upper- and lower-case letters appearing in a given piece of text. The choice of case is often prescribed by the grammar of a language or by the conventions of a particular discipline, in mathematics, letter case may indicate the relationship between objects, with upper-case letters often representing superior objects. In some contexts, it is conventional to use only one case, the terms upper case and lower case can be written as two consecutive words, connected with a hyphen, or as a single word. These terms originated from the layouts of the shallow drawers called type cases used to hold the movable type for letterpress printing. Traditionally, the letters were stored in a separate case that was located above the case that held the small letters. Majuscule, for palaeographers, is technically any script in which the letters have very few or very short ascenders and descenders, or none at all. By virtue of their impact, this made the term majuscule an apt descriptor for what much later came to be more commonly referred to as uppercase letters. The word is often spelled miniscule, by association with the word miniature. This has traditionally been regarded as a mistake, but is now so common that some dictionaries tend to accept it as a nonstandard or variant spelling. Miniscule is still less likely, however, to be used in reference to lower-case letters, the glyphs of lower-case letters can resemble smaller forms of the upper-case glyphs restricted to the base band or can look hardly related. There is more variation in the height of the minuscules, as some of them have higher or lower than the typical size. In Times New Roman, for instance, b, d, f, h, k, l, t are the letters with ascenders, and g, j, p, q, y are the ones with descenders. In addition, with old-style numerals still used by traditional or classical fonts,6 and 8 make up the ascender set. Writing systems using two separate cases are bicameral scripts, languages that use the Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Coptic, Armenian, Adlam, Varang Kshiti, Cherokee, and Osage scripts use letter cases in their written form as an aid to clarity. Other bicameral scripts, which are not used for any modern languages, are Old Hungarian, Glagolitic, the Georgian alphabet has several variants, and there were attempts to use them as different cases, but the modern written Georgian language does not distinguish case
5.
Meteorology
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Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences which includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics, with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century, the 19th century saw modest progress in the field after weather observation networks were formed across broad regions. Prior attempts at prediction of weather depended on historical data, Meteorological phenomena are observable weather events that are explained by the science of meteorology. Different spatial scales are used to describe and predict weather on local, regional, Meteorology, climatology, atmospheric physics, and atmospheric chemistry are sub-disciplines of the atmospheric sciences. Meteorology and hydrology compose the interdisciplinary field of hydrometeorology, the interactions between Earths atmosphere and its oceans are part of a coupled ocean-atmosphere system. Meteorology has application in diverse fields such as the military, energy production, transport, agriculture. The word meteorology is from Greek μετέωρος metéōros lofty, high and -λογία -logia -logy, varāhamihiras classical work Brihatsamhita, written about 500 AD, provides clear evidence that a deep knowledge of atmospheric processes existed even in those times. In 350 BC, Aristotle wrote Meteorology, Aristotle is considered the founder of meteorology. One of the most impressive achievements described in the Meteorology is the description of what is now known as the hydrologic cycle and they are all called swooping bolts because they swoop down upon the Earth. Lightning is sometimes smoky, and is then called smoldering lightning, sometimes it darts quickly along, at other times, it travels in crooked lines, and is called forked lightning. When it swoops down upon some object it is called swooping lightning, the Greek scientist Theophrastus compiled a book on weather forecasting, called the Book of Signs. The work of Theophrastus remained a dominant influence in the study of weather, in 25 AD, Pomponius Mela, a geographer for the Roman Empire, formalized the climatic zone system. According to Toufic Fahd, around the 9th century, Al-Dinawari wrote the Kitab al-Nabat, ptolemy wrote on the atmospheric refraction of light in the context of astronomical observations. St. Roger Bacon was the first to calculate the size of the rainbow. He stated that a rainbow summit can not appear higher than 42 degrees above the horizon, in the late 13th century and early 14th century, Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī and Theodoric of Freiberg were the first to give the correct explanations for the primary rainbow phenomenon. Theoderic went further and also explained the secondary rainbow, in 1716, Edmund Halley suggested that aurorae are caused by magnetic effluvia moving along the Earths magnetic field lines. In 1441, King Sejongs son, Prince Munjong, invented the first standardized rain gauge and these were sent throughout the Joseon Dynasty of Korea as an official tool to assess land taxes based upon a farmers potential harvest. In 1450, Leone Battista Alberti developed a swinging-plate anemometer, and was known as the first anemometer, in 1607, Galileo Galilei constructed a thermoscope
6.
Pressure measurement
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Many techniques have been developed for the measurement of pressure and vacuum. Instruments used to measure and display pressure in a unit are called pressure gauges or vacuum gauges. A manometer is an example as it uses a column of liquid to both measure and indicate pressure. Likewise the widely used Bourdon gauge is a device which both measures and indicates, and is probably the best known type of gauge. A vacuum gauge is a pressure gauge used to measure the pressures lower than the ambient atmospheric pressure. Other methods of pressure measurement involve sensors which can transmit the pressure reading to an indicator or control system. Everyday pressure measurements, such as for vehicle tire pressure, are made relative to ambient air pressure. In other cases measurements are made relative to a vacuum or to other specific reference. Gauge pressure is zero-referenced against ambient air pressure, so it is equal to absolute pressure minus atmospheric pressure, to distinguish a negative pressure, the value may be appended with the word vacuum or the gauge may be labeled a vacuum gauge. These are further divided into two subcategories, high and low vacuum, the applicable pressure ranges of many of the techniques used to measure vacuums have an overlap. Hence, by combining different types of gauge, it is possible to measure system pressure continuously from 10 mbar down to 10−11 mbar. Differential pressure is the difference in pressure between two points, the zero reference in use is usually implied by context, and these words are added only when clarification is needed. Tire pressure and blood pressure are gauge pressures by convention, while atmospheric pressures, deep vacuum pressures, for most working fluids where a fluid exists in a closed system, gauge pressure measurement prevails. Pressure instruments connected to the system will indicate pressures relative to the current atmospheric pressure, the situation changes when extreme vacuum pressures are measured, absolute pressures are typically used instead. Differential pressures are used in industrial process systems. Differential pressure gauges have two ports, each connected to one of the volumes whose pressure is to be monitored. Moderate vacuum pressure readings can be ambiguous without the proper context, thus a vacuum of 26 inHg gauge is equivalent to an absolute pressure of 30 inHg −26 inHg =4 inHg. Atmospheric pressure is typically about 100 kPa at sea level, but is variable with altitude, if the absolute pressure of a fluid stays constant, the gauge pressure of the same fluid will vary as atmospheric pressure changes
7.
Pressure
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Pressure is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure is the relative to the ambient pressure. Various units are used to express pressure, Pressure may also be expressed in terms of standard atmospheric pressure, the atmosphere is equal to this pressure and the torr is defined as 1⁄760 of this. Manometric units such as the centimetre of water, millimetre of mercury, Pressure is the amount of force acting per unit area. The symbol for it is p or P, the IUPAC recommendation for pressure is a lower-case p. However, upper-case P is widely used. The usage of P vs p depends upon the field in one is working, on the nearby presence of other symbols for quantities such as power and momentum. Mathematically, p = F A where, p is the pressure, F is the normal force and it relates the vector surface element with the normal force acting on it. It is incorrect to say the pressure is directed in such or such direction, the pressure, as a scalar, has no direction. The force given by the relationship to the quantity has a direction. If we change the orientation of the element, the direction of the normal force changes accordingly. Pressure is distributed to solid boundaries or across arbitrary sections of normal to these boundaries or sections at every point. It is a parameter in thermodynamics, and it is conjugate to volume. The SI unit for pressure is the pascal, equal to one newton per square metre and this name for the unit was added in 1971, before that, pressure in SI was expressed simply in newtons per square metre. Other units of pressure, such as pounds per square inch, the CGS unit of pressure is the barye, equal to 1 dyn·cm−2 or 0.1 Pa. Pressure is sometimes expressed in grams-force or kilograms-force per square centimetre, but using the names kilogram, gram, kilogram-force, or gram-force as units of force is expressly forbidden in SI. The technical atmosphere is 1 kgf/cm2, since a system under pressure has potential to perform work on its surroundings, pressure is a measure of potential energy stored per unit volume. It is therefore related to density and may be expressed in units such as joules per cubic metre. Similar pressures are given in kilopascals in most other fields, where the prefix is rarely used
8.
Units of measurement
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A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same quantity. Any other value of quantity can be expressed as a simple multiple of the unit of measurement. For example, length is a physical quantity, the metre is a unit of length that represents a definite predetermined length. When we say 10 metres, we actually mean 10 times the definite predetermined length called metre, the definition, agreement, and practical use of units of measurement have played a crucial role in human endeavour from early ages up to this day. Different systems of units used to be very common, now there is a global standard, the International System of Units, the modern form of the metric system. In trade, weights and measures is often a subject of regulation, to ensure fairness. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures is tasked with ensuring worldwide uniformity of measurements, metrology is the science for developing nationally and internationally accepted units of weights and measures. In physics and metrology, units are standards for measurement of quantities that need clear definitions to be useful. Reproducibility of experimental results is central to the scientific method, a standard system of units facilitates this. Scientific systems of units are a refinement of the concept of weights, science, medicine, and engineering often use larger and smaller units of measurement than those used in everyday life and indicate them more precisely. The judicious selection of the units of measurement can aid researchers in problem solving, in the social sciences, there are no standard units of measurement and the theory and practice of measurement is studied in psychometrics and the theory of conjoint measurement. A unit of measurement is a quantity of a physical property. Units of measurement were among the earliest tools invented by humans, primitive societies needed rudimentary measures for many tasks, constructing dwellings of an appropriate size and shape, fashioning clothing, or bartering food or raw materials. Weights and measures are mentioned in the Bible and it is a commandment to be honest and have fair measures. As of the 21st Century, multiple unit systems are used all over the world such as the United States Customary System, the British Customary System, however, the United States is the only industrialized country that has not yet completely converted to the Metric System. The systematic effort to develop an acceptable system of units dates back to 1790 when the French National Assembly charged the French Academy of Sciences to come up such a unit system. After this treaty was signed, a General Conference of Weights, the CGPM produced the current SI system which was adopted in 1954 at the 10th conference of weights and measures. Currently, the United States is a society which uses both the SI system and the US Customary system
9.
Metrology
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The field of metrology is important for establishing a common understanding of units, which is crucial in linking human activities. This led to the creation of the decimal based metric system in 1795 to establish a set of standards for types of measurements. This has since evolved into the International System of Units as a result of a made in the 11th Conference Generale des Poids et Mesures in 1960. The NMS greatly effects how measurements are undertaken in the country and this has wide reaching impacts in a variety of different regions of society. It has implications in the area of economies, energy, environment, health, manufacturing, industry, consumer confidence, the effects of metrology on trade and the economy are some of the easiest observed societal impacts. The field of metrology is important for establishing a common understanding of units and these base concepts of metrology are propagated by the three main fields of metrology, which are, scientific or fundamental metrology, applied, technical or industrial metrology, and legal metrology. While there is no definition of fundamental metrology it is considered to be the top level of scientific metrology that strives for the highest level of accuracy. The BIPM maintains a database of the calibration and measurement capabilities of various institutes around the world. These institutes, whose activities are peer-reviewed, provide the reference points for metrological traceability. In the area of measurement, the BIPM has identified nine metrology areas, including length, mass, although the emphasis in this area of metrology is on the measurements themselves, traceability of the calibration of the measurement devices is necessary to ensure confidence in the measurements. Industrial metrology is important to the economical and industrial development of a country, such statutory requirements might arise from, amongst others, the needs for protection of health, public safety, the environment, enabling taxation, protection of consumers and fair trade. The International Organization for Legal Metrology was established to assist in harmonising such regulations across national boundaries to ensure that legal requirements do not inhibit trade. In Europe WELMEC was established in 1990 to promote cooperation on the field of metrology in the European Union. Throughout history the ability to make measurements has been instrumental in the progress of mankind, the ability to measure alone is not sufficient, rather the ability to compare separate measurements and have agreeability is crucial for the measurements to be meaningful. The first record of a permanent standard is from 2900 BC, the cubit was decreed to be the length of the Pharaohs forearm plus the width of his hand and replica standards were given out to builders. The success of standardized length during the building of the pyramids is evidenced by the lengths of the pyramid bases differing by no more than 0. 05%, other civilizations produced their own measurement standards that were accepted throughout their nations. The architecture of the Roman and Greek empires were based on their own systems of measurement. Nonetheless, the fall of great empires and the rise of the Dark Ages caused much of measurement knowledge
10.
Bar (unit)
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The bar is a metric unit of pressure, but is not approved as part of the International System of Units. It is defined as equal to 100000 Pa, which is slightly less than the current average atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea level. The bar and the millibar were introduced by the Norwegian meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes, use of the bar is deprecated by some professional bodies in some fields. The International Astronomical Union also lists it under Non-SI units and symbols whose continued use is deprecated, as of 2004, the bar is legally recognized in countries of the European Union. Units derived from the bar include the megabar, kilobar, decibar, centibar, the notation bar, though deprecated by various bodies, represents gauge pressure, i. e. pressure in bars above ambient or atmospheric pressure. The bar is defined using the SI derived unit, pascal,1 bar ≡100000 Pa. Thus,1 bar is equal to,100 kPa 1×105 N/m21000000 Ba, notes,1 millibar =1 one-thousandth bar, or 1×10−3 bar 1 millibar =1 hectopascal. The word bar has its origin in the Greek word βάρος, the units official symbol is bar, the earlier symbol b is now deprecated and conflicts with the use of b denoting the unit barn, but it is still encountered, especially as mb to denote the millibar. Between 1793 and 1795, the bar was used for a unit of weight in an early version of the metric system. Atmospheric air pressure is given in millibars where standard sea level pressure is defined as 1013 mbar,101.3,1.013 bar. Despite the millibar not being an SI unit, meteorologists and weather reporters worldwide have long measured air pressure in millibars as the values are convenient, for example, the weather office of Environment Canada uses kilopascals and hectopascals on their weather maps. In contrast, Americans are familiar with the use of the millibar in US reports of hurricanes, in fresh water, there is an approximate numerical equivalence between the change in pressure in decibars and the change in depth from the water surface in metres. Specifically, an increase of 1 decibar occurs for every 1.019716 m increase in depth, in sea water with respect to the gravity variation, the latitude and the geopotential anomaly the pressure can be converted into meters depth according to an empirical formula. As a result, decibars are commonly used in oceanography, many engineers worldwide use the bar as a unit of pressure because, in much of their work, using pascals would involve using very large numbers. In the automotive field, turbocharger boost is often described in bars outside the USA), unicode has characters for mb and bar, but they exist only for compatibility with legacy Asian encodings and are not intended to be used in new documents. The kilobar, equivalent to 100 MPa, is used in geological systems. Bar and bara are sometimes used to indicate absolute pressures and bar and this usage is deprecated and fuller descriptions such as gauge pressure of 2 bar or 2 bar gauge are recommended.0 Unported License but not under the GFDL. Non-SI units accepted for use with the SI
11.
Pascal (unit)
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The pascal is the SI derived unit of pressure used to quantify internal pressure, stress, Youngs modulus and ultimate tensile strength. It is defined as one newton per square meter and it is named after the French polymath Blaise Pascal. Common multiple units of the pascal are the hectopascal which is equal to one millibar, the unit of measurement called standard atmosphere is defined as 101,325 Pa and approximates to the average pressure at sea-level at the latitude 45° N. Meteorological reports typically state atmospheric pressure in hectopascals, the unit is named after Blaise Pascal, noted for his contributions to hydrodynamics and hydrostatics, and experiments with a barometer. The name pascal was adopted for the SI unit newton per square metre by the 14th General Conference on Weights, one pascal is the pressure exerted by a force of magnitude one newton perpendicularly upon an area of one square metre. The unit of measurement called atmosphere or standard atmosphere is 101325 Pa and this value is often used as a reference pressure and specified as such in some national and international standards, such as ISO2787, ISO2533 and ISO5024. In contrast, IUPAC recommends the use of 100 kPa as a standard pressure when reporting the properties of substances, geophysicists use the gigapascal in measuring or calculating tectonic stresses and pressures within the Earth. Medical elastography measures tissue stiffness non-invasively with ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging, in materials science and engineering, the pascal measures the stiffness, tensile strength and compressive strength of materials. In engineering use, because the pascal represents a small quantity. The pascal is also equivalent to the SI unit of energy density and this applies not only to the thermodynamics of pressurised gases, but also to the energy density of electric, magnetic, and gravitational fields. In measurements of sound pressure, or loudness of sound, one pascal is equal to 94 decibels SPL, the quietest sound a human can hear, known as the threshold of hearing, is 0 dB SPL, or 20 µPa. The airtightness of buildings is measured at 50 Pa, the units of atmospheric pressure commonly used in meteorology were formerly the bar, which was close to the average air pressure on Earth, and the millibar. Since the introduction of SI units, meteorologists generally measure pressures in hectopascals unit, exceptions include Canada and Portugal, which use kilopascals. In many other fields of science, the SI is preferred, many countries also use the millibar or hectopascal to give aviation altimeter settings. In practically all fields, the kilopascal is used instead. Centimetre of water Metric prefix Orders of magnitude Pascals law
12.
Metric prefix
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A metric prefix is a unit prefix that precedes a basic unit of measure to indicate a multiple or fraction of the unit. While all metric prefixes in use today are decadic, historically there have been a number of binary metric prefixes as well. Each prefix has a symbol that is prepended to the unit symbol. The prefix kilo-, for example, may be added to gram to indicate multiplication by one thousand, the prefix milli-, likewise, may be added to metre to indicate division by one thousand, one millimetre is equal to one thousandth of a metre. Decimal multiplicative prefixes have been a feature of all forms of the system with six dating back to the systems introduction in the 1790s. Metric prefixes have even been prepended to non-metric units, the SI prefixes are standardized for use in the International System of Units by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in resolutions dating from 1960 to 1991. Since 2009, they have formed part of the International System of Quantities, the BIPM specifies twenty prefixes for the International System of Units. Each prefix name has a symbol which is used in combination with the symbols for units of measure. For example, the symbol for kilo- is k, and is used to produce km, kg, and kW, which are the SI symbols for kilometre, kilogram, prefixes corresponding to an integer power of one thousand are generally preferred. Hence 100 m is preferred over 1 hm or 10 dam, the prefixes hecto, deca, deci, and centi are commonly used for everyday purposes, and the centimetre is especially common. However, some building codes require that the millimetre be used in preference to the centimetre, because use of centimetres leads to extensive usage of decimal points. Prefixes may not be used in combination and this also applies to mass, for which the SI base unit already contains a prefix. For example, milligram is used instead of microkilogram, in the arithmetic of measurements having units, the units are treated as multiplicative factors to values. If they have prefixes, all but one of the prefixes must be expanded to their numeric multiplier,1 km2 means one square kilometre, or the area of a square of 1000 m by 1000 m and not 1000 square metres. 2 Mm3 means two cubic megametres, or the volume of two cubes of 1000000 m by 1000000 m by 1000000 m or 2×1018 m3, and not 2000000 cubic metres, examples 5 cm = 5×10−2 m =5 ×0.01 m =0. The prefixes, including those introduced after 1960, are used with any metric unit, metric prefixes may also be used with non-metric units. The choice of prefixes with a unit is usually dictated by convenience of use. Unit prefixes for amounts that are larger or smaller than those actually encountered are seldom used
