> The NIST suggests to use the unit abbreviations (with they proper
> capitalization, of course) in technical and scientific texts, for clarity.

> But in an example, they also write "60 watts" with a lower case first
> letter... even though that should be, according to you, "60 Watt" (or "60
> Watts"?). But then, the NIST is in the USA :)  I guess they're right about
> that it's better to use the correct unit abbreviations.

The convention is that units which are named after a person have their first
letter capitalised.
Most unit names are unique so failure to capitalise will usually not cause
errors.

Correct capitalisation often leads to strange appearance.

    km, m/s, Ws, kWh, MWh, mWh (which would be unusual), mAh, Nm, Nm/s, kPa
(two letters in unit name), kPa/m^2 ...

Failure to correctly capitalise the multiplier can lead to error - but often
not one that will easily be over looked.

1 mF = 0.001 Farad
1 MF = 1,000,000 Farad :-)


    RM




_______________________________________________
http://www.piclist.com
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist