Scientific units named after people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of scientific units named after people. For other lists of eponyms (names derived from people) see eponym. Note that by convention, the name of the unit is properly written in all-lowercase, but its abbreviation is capitalized.
Contents |
[edit] SI base units
- ampere (A), electric current – André-Marie Ampère
- kelvin (K), thermodynamic temperature – Lord Kelvin
[edit] SI derived unit
- becquerel (Bq), radioactivity – Henri Becquerel
- degree Celsius (°C), temperature – Anders Celsius
- coulomb (C), electric charge – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
- farad (F), capacitance – Michael Faraday
- gray (Gy), absorbed dose of radiation - Louis Harold Gray
- henry (H), inductance – Joseph Henry
- hertz (Hz), frequency – Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
- joule (J), energy, work, heat – James Prescott Joule
- newton (N), force – Isaac Newton
- ohm (Ω) , electrical resistance – Georg Ohm
- pascal (Pa), pressure – Blaise Pascal
- siemens (S), electrical conductance – Werner von Siemens
- sievert (Sv), radiation dose equivalent – Rolf Sievert
- tesla (T), magnetic flux density – Nikola Tesla
- volt (V), electric potential, electromotive force – Alessandro Volta
- watt (W), power, radiant flux – James Watt
- weber (Wb), magnetic flux – Wilhelm Eduard Weber
[edit] Centimeter-gram-second system of units
- biot (Bi), electric current – Jean-Baptiste Biot
- debye (D), electric dipole moment – Peter Debye
- eotvos (E), gravitational gradient – Loránd Eötvös
- galileo (Gal), acceleration – Galileo Galilei
- gauss (G or Gs), magnetic flux density – Carl Friedrich Gauss
- gilbert (Gb), magnetomotive force – William Gilbert
- maxwell (Mx), magnetic flux – James Clerk Maxwell
- oersted (Oe), magnetic field strength – Hans Christian Ørsted
- poise (P), dynamic viscosity – Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille
[edit] No longer in use
- franklin (Fr), electric charge – Benjamin Franklin
[edit] Others
- ångström (Å), distance – Anders Jonas Ångström
- brewster (B), stress optic coefficient – David Brewster
- centiMorgan, recombinantion frequency – Thomas Hunt Morgan
- curie (Ci), radioactivity – Marie and Pierre Curie
- dalton (Da), mass – John Dalton
- decibel (dB) dimensionless proportions and ratios, e.g. relative power levels – Alexander Graham Bell
- degree Fahrenheit (°F), temperature – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
- fermi (fm), distance – Enrico Fermi
- jansky (Jy), electromagnetic flux – Karl Jansky
- langmuir (L), gas exposure dose – Irving Langmuir
- Mach number (Ma), relative speed – Ernst Mach
- neper (Np), relative power level – John Napier
- röntgen (R), dosage of X-rays or gamma radiation – Wilhelm Röntgen
- Richter magnitude, earthquake power – Charles Francis Richter
- siegbahn (xu), distance, – Manne Siegbahn
- Scoville units, capsaicin content of chili peppers – Wilbur Scoville
- stokes (S or St), kinematic viscosity – George Gabriel Stokes
- svedberg (S or Sv), sedimentation rate – Theodor Svedberg
[edit] Natural unit systems
[edit] No longer in use
- Mercalli Intensity Scale, earthquake effects – Giuseppe Mercalli
- degree Rankine (°R), temperature – William John Macquorn Rankine
- degree Réaumur, temperature – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur
- torr (Torr), pressure – Evangelista Torricelli
