These numbers are so big and so small that we as humans cannot picture them. I have no grasp of them, even with examples so they fall under the category of mindboggling.
Let's start with the biggest numbers. The two new ones are ronna and quetta. Ronna is the prefix representing 10^27 and quetta is the new prefix designating 10^30. To put it in perspective, the earth weighs one ronnagram. The other two are the ronno which is the new prefix for 10^-27 and quecto for 10^-30 and the mass of a single electron is one quercto.
These are the first prefixes added since 1991 when they added zetta at 10^21, Zepto at 10^-21, yotta for 10^24 and yocto for 10^-24 as a way of helping meteorologists adapt to the chemists Avogadro number. The lastest additions come from the world of data science. The amount of data produced world wide is already in the zetta range of 10^21 or roughly 1000000000000000000000 pieces of data.
As it becomes necessary to add these prefixes, there are certain naming rules to follow such that all large numbers end in a and the small numbers will end in o. In addition, the words chosen need to sound similar to the way Greek or Latin numbers sound. The zepto and yotta are similar to the Greek words for nine and ten. The original word for 10^-27 was quecca which was thrown out since it was too close to a Portuguese swear word. This is one reason why it takes so long to come up with the names is that it involves a lot of discussion before anything is settled on.
Right now, they only need the prefixes for the really large numbers but they still make sure there is an equal one for the smaller numbers so that everything is balanced. As for the future, it is proposed that scientists start combining already established terms to create the new terms such as kiloquetta rather than coming up with new alphabets.
So we have four new prefixes and it may be a while before the next ones are proposed and accepted. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. Have a great day.
No comments:
Post a Comment