> IME, in the UK, pF,nF and uF are widely used, mF is rarely used.  It
> doesn't help that 100uF is sometimes called '100 muff', which
> could equally
> be 100 mF!

To tell you the truth, until Olin mentioned it, I had never seen milli used
as a prefix for farads.  That's why I wondered whether it might have been a
typo.

However, I am not, like many do, having a go at Olin here, because he is
dead right, IMHO.  The inconsistency with notation used for capacitance is
silly.  How often have you needed say a 1nF mono cap, and had to look for a
0.001uF one, or going from the sublime to the ridiculous, a 47pF ceramic cap
and had to look for a 0.000047uF one ?  I for one get tired of continually
counting decimal place zeroes, and doing multiplies by 1000 and shifting
decimal places in my head when I go shopping for capacitors.  I know it is a
small point I am bitching about here, but it just looks messy and is harder
to read.  As Olin said too, it goes against the standards.

Maybe we could start a movement to change this ;)

> I overheard one of my colleagues ordering some 47uF caps from
> a well known
> distributor's call centre with little success, eventually saying "No,
> MICRO, it looks like a small letter 'u'"...

LOL.  Reminds me of a recent trip to Dick Smith Electronics here in Sydney.
I needed some MKT caps in a hurry, and Dick Smith was the only electronics
shop around that was open at the time.  When I took a strip of them from the
parts bin to the counter the kind girl behind asked what they were.  I said
"They are capacitors".  She said "What are they for".  I said, "Well, lots
of things, but in this case, I need them for filters" (RC filters, but I did
not bother her with this technical detail).  She said, "What, for a pool
filter".  Enough said.

Just my yoctocent's worth ...

PS: 'Tis funny how a discussion that started about Peltier TEC control and
hot/cold test boxes, turns to LC filter design, and becomes a discussion on
engineering notation.  I love this list !

Rgs
Ian.

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList
mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu