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HowMany - Unit Dictionar Category: Mathematics and statistics > Dictionary of unit measurements Date & country: 26/09/2008, USA Words: 1293

ss
a traditional abbreviation for 1/2, from the Latin semis. In medieval times the symbol was often written as the long s, an obsolete character that looks something like f without the crossbar.

SSU
a symbol for the Saybolt Universal second (see above).

stack (stk)
a traditional unit of volume used in Britain for coal and firewood. The stack equals 4 cubic yards, which is 108 cubic feet or about 3.058 cubic meters. As a firewood measure, a stack equals 27/32 = 0.843 75 cord.

standard (std)
a traditional unit of volume used in northern Europe to measure the volume of finished lumber. The standard equals 165 cubic feet, which is equivalent to 1980 board feet or about 4.672 cubic meters.

standard atmosphere
see atmosphere.

standard cubic meter
see normal cubic meter; also see sccm above.

standard gravity (g or grav)
the average acceleration of gravity at the earth's surface, conventionally defined to be exactly 9.806 65 meters per second per second, or about 32.174 05 feet per second per second. The unit is popularly known as the g or gee.

stang
a traditional Welsh unit of land area generally equal to 3240 square yards, 0.6694 acre, or 0.2709 hectare.

stapp
a unit used to express the effects of acceleration or deceleration on the human body. One stapp represents an acceleration of 1 g for a period of 1 second, or 9.80665 meters per second per second for 1 second. The unit is named for the U.S. Air Force physician John P. Stapp (1910-1999), a pioneer in research on the human effects of acceleration dur...

step
a unit used in music to describe the ratio in frequency between notes. Two notes differ by a step if the higher note has frequency exactly 2^1/6 = 1.12246 times the frequency of the lower one. This unit is often called the full step to distinguish it from the half step.

STP or stp
an abbreviation for standard temperature and pressure. This notation often appears with statements of the volume of gases; it means the volume measurement is made at or adjusted to a temperature of 0 °C (32 °F) and a pressure of 1 atmosphere, or 101.325 kilopascals.

streck
a unit of angle measurement used in the Swedish military, equal to 1/17.5 degree. This is equivalent to 3.429 minutes of arc (moa), 1.0159 mil (in NATO terminology) or 0.9973 milliradian.

stremma
a traditional Greek unit of area, now redefined to equal exactly 1000 square meters or 0.1 hectare (0.24710 acre).

stride
another name for a pace.

strike
a traditional British unit of volume, varying considerably but usually more than a bushel. A convenient equivalent is 2 imperial bushels (roughly 2.5 cubic feet or 73 liters).

strob
a metric unit of angular velocity. The strob represents a rotation rate of one radian per second or 9.54930 rpm. The name comes from the Greek strobos, meaning 'rotating.'

strontium unit (SU)
a unit of radioactive concentration used to measure the presence of the very dangerous radioisotope strontium 90 in the body or elsewhere. In the body or the environment, strontium atoms tend to replace or become mixed with atoms of calcium. One strontium unit is a concentration of 1 picocurie per gram of calcium (pCi/g Ca). In SI units this is equ...

stu
see short ton unit, above.

stubbie
a traditional Australian beer bottle holding 375 milliliters.

stunde
the German word for the hour. In Switzerland, the stunde is also a unit of distance defined to be 4800 meters (2.983 miles) -- approximately the distance a person can walk in an hour. The definition is consistent with the custom everywhere of informally adopting time units as distance units, as when we say 'I live 10 minutes from school.'

superficial
an adjective used to convert a unit of length into a unit of area. 'Superficial', in this use, means 'square': a superficial foot, for example, is equal to a square foot, and a superficial yard is equal to a square yard. In Australia and New Zealand, a superficial foot often means the super foot (see below).

super foot
a British commercial unit of area equal to one square foot. The name originated as an abbreviation (ft. super. or super. ft.) for the superficial foot.

super foot
in Australia and New Zealand a super foot is a unit of volume for timber or lumber, equal to the volume of a board one foot square and one inch thick. This unit is the same as the North American board foot.

surface foot
another name for a linear foot. See SFM (above).

SUS
a symbol for the Saybolt Universal second (see above).

SWG
abbreviation for Standard Wire Gauge. See gauge and the table of wire gauge equivalents.

SWU
symbol for the separative work unit, a unit used in the nuclear power industry to describe the work required to enrich uranium (that is, to increase the fraction of uranium 235, the isotope which undergoes fission to produce energy). The details are quite complex, but roughly speaking about 4.5 SWU are needed to enrich 1 kilogram of uranium, more o...

tagwerk
see juchart.

talent
a historic unit of weight, used in various forms throughout the eastern Mediterranean. The Hebrew sacred talent, mentioned in the Bible, was equal to 60 minas or about 30 kilograms (66 pounds). The Greek talent, also equal to 60 minas, was smaller, 25.8 kilograms or about 57 pounds.

tan
a traditional Chinese weight unit, now spelled dan in English transliteration. During the European colonial era the tan was equal to 100 cattys or 1600 taels. This is equivalent to 133.333 pounds, making the tan comparable to the European quintal as a commercial weight unit. In modern China the tan, or rather the dan, is equal to 100 jin, which is ...

tan
a traditional unit of land area in Japan equal to 10 se or about 991.7 square meters (0.099 hectare or 0.245 acre).

tce
a symbol for tonne of coal equivalent, a unit of energy used in the international energy industry. 1 tce represents the energy available from burning one tonne (metric ton) of coal; this is considered equivalent to exactly 0.7 tonnes or approximately 5.2 barrels of oil, or 890 cubic meters of natural gas. 1 tce is equivalent to 29.308 gigajoules (G...

teacupful
a unit of liquid volume used in British food recipes. The teacupful is the same volume as an Imperial gill: 5 fluid ounces, 8.670 cubic inches, or about 137.7 milliliters.

tebi- (Ti-)
a binary prefix meaning 2⁴⁰ = 1 099 511 627 776. This prefix, adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 1998, replaces tera- for binary applications in computer science. The prefix is a contraction of 'terabinary.'

tenth-meter
an old name for the angstrom, a unit of distance equal to 10^-10 meter.

terabecquerel (TBq)
a unit of radioactivity equal to 10¹² atomic disintegrations per second or 27.027 curies.

teraflops (Tflops)
a unit of computing power equal to one trillion (10¹²) floating point operations per second. See flops.

teragram (Tg)
a metric unit of mass equal to 10¹² grams or 1 megatonne (one million metric tons). This unit is frequently used in atmospheric science and other scientific contexts where large masses are considered.

terahertz (THz)
a unit of frequency equal to 10¹² per second or 1 per picosecond. Infrared and visible light waves have frequencies measured in terahertz.

terajoule (TJ)
a metric unit of energy commonly used in the energy industry, equal to 10¹² joules. One terajoule equals 947.817 million Btu, 277.7778 megawatt hours (MW•h), or about 9480 therms (see below).

terameter (Tm)
a metric unit of distance equal to 10¹² meters or 10⁹ kilometers. This is about 6.6846 astronomical units. The distance from Saturn to the Sun is about 1.43 terameters.

terawatt (TW)
a metric unit of power equal to one trillion (10¹²) watts or about 1.341 billion horsepower.

terawatt hour (TW•h)
a metric unit of energy equal to one billion kilowatt hours (kW•h), 3.6 petajoules (PJ), or about 3.412 trillion Btu.

tertian
a traditional unit of volume for liquids. The tertian, like the tierce (see below) takes its name from the Latin for 1/3. It equals 1/3 tun, which is 2 tierces or 84 U.S. gallons (about 318 liters).

tetrad
a unit of quantity equal to 4.

tetrad
a unit of digital information equal to 4 bits or 1/2 byte. This unit, in various contexts, is also called a nibble, a quadbit, or a hexit. The unit seems to be more common in German, where it is spelled tetrade.

TEU
a unit of cargo capacity, especially for container ships. These ships carry cargo in standard metal boxes, called containers, which can be transferred easily to trains or trucks. TEU is an abbreviation for 'twenty-foot equivalent unit.' One TEU represents the cargo capacity of a standard container 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and (usually) a little o...

TeV
the symbol for one trillion (10¹²) electronvolts. Thanks to Einstein's equation E = mc² equating mass wth energy, the TeV can be regarded either as a unit of energy equal to 160.217 646 2 nanojoules, or as a unit of mass equal to 1.782 662 x 10^-21 gram or 1073.544 atomic mass unit...

therblig
a unit of physical activity used in time-and-motion studies in industrial engineering. A therblig represents one of 18 standardized activities identified by the American industrial psychologists Frank B. Gilbreth (1868-1924) and Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972): search, find, select, grasp, hold, position, assemble, use, disassemble, inspect, tr...

thermie (th)
a metric unit of heat energy, part of the meter-tonne-second system sometimes used by European engineers. The thermie is equal to the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 tonne of water by 1°C. The thermie is equivalent to 1000 (large) calories , 4.1868 megajoules or 3968.3 Btu.

thermochemical calorie (calth)
a form of the calorie formerly used in chemistry. The thermochemical calorie was defined in 1935 to equal exactly 4.184 joules. This is slightly smaller than the International Steam Table calorie (4.1868 joules) defined in 1956.

third ("')
a unit of time equal to 1/60 second. The symbol for this rarely-used unit is a triple prime, suggesting a natural progression from the minute (') through the second (') to the third ('').

third-octave
a unit of frequency interval describing a band of frequencies such that the highest frequency is 2^1/3 = 1.260 times the lowest. This unit is commonly used in noise control and abatement.

thou
an alternate name for what Americans call a mil: a unit of distance equal to 0.001 inch (25.4 micrometers). This name originated in Britain, but it is now common in the U.S. also.

thou
an informal contraction of 'thousand,' sometimes used as a unit of quantity.

thrave
a traditional measure of grain in Scotland and northern England. A thrave is usually 24 sheaves, each about 30 inches (76 centimeters) in circumference.

thumb
another name for an inch.

tick
an informal unit of time equal to the length of one cycle of a clock. A tick of a computer system's clock, also called a jiffy, is usually 0.01 second. A tick in athletics is the smallest increment of time measured in a timed competition, usually 0.1 second or 0.01 second.

tick
a unit used in finance and investing to express the smallest measured change in a price or index. For example, at the Chicago Board of Trade in the U.S. a tick in the price of many agricultural commodities is equal to 1/4 cent ($0.0025) per bushel .

tier
another name for a rick, a unit of firewood volume equal to 1/3 cord.

timber
a traditional unit of quantity for furs equal to 2 score or 40. This unit, which persisted at least into the nineteenth century, originated because furs were shipped in bundles of 40 pressed between two boards or timbers.

time zone
a unit representing the difference in time between a given location and Universal Time. Under ISO 8601 (see previous entry), the difference is positive if the local time is later than Universal Time and negative if it is earlier. U.S. Eastern Standard Time is time zone -05, while Pacific Standard Time is time zone -08. For some areas, the differenc...

time zone
an informal unit used to express differences in longitude between two places on the Earth. On the average, a time zone spans 15° of longitude. Of course, actual time zones have irregular boundaries, so this is only approximate. At the latitudes of the continental U.S., time zones average about 800 miles wide.

tithe
a traditional unit of proportion equal to 1/10. The word 'tithe' is an old one, drawn directly from the Anglo-Saxon word for a tenth.

to
a traditional Japanese unit of volume. The to equals 10 sho, which is about 18.039 liters, 3.968 British imperial gallons, or 4.765 U.S. liquid gallons.

toe
a symbol for tonne of oil equivalent, a unit of energy used in the international energy industry. 1 toe represents the energy available from burning one tonne (metric ton) of oil; this is defined to be exactly 10⁷ kilocalories, equivalent to approximately 7.4 barrels of oil, 1270 cubic meters of natural gas, or 1.4 tonnes of ...

tola
a traditional unit of weight in India and South Asia. Like the seer and the maund, the tola varied considerably from one area to another. The official size in British India was 180 grains, which is about 0.4114 ounce (avoirdupois) or 11.664 grams. There are 80 tolas in a seer, 3200 in a maund.

tolerance unit
a unit of relative distance used by engineers when they put round pegs in round holes. Whenever a shaft passes through a hole, a small distance (the tolerance) must be left so that the shaft will be able to turn. If the diameter of a shaft is D millimeters, one tolerance unit for that shaft is 0.001D + 0.45(cube root of D). The cube root term allow...

toman
a historic unit of quantity equal to 10 000. The word is of ancient Persian origin; it survives in several languages of western Asia and is used today in Turkey and Iran.

ton
British slang for 100, especially the sum of 100 pounds, a speed of 100 miles per hour, or a score of 100 in darts or cricket. The origin of this usage is not clear.

tone
another name for the step as a musical unit describing the ratio in frequency between notes.

tonelada
a traditional weight unit of Spain and Portugal corresponding to the English and metric ton. The traditional Spanish tonelada equals 2000 libras or about 2028 pounds (919.9 kilograms). The Portuguese tonelada, however, equals 1728 Portuguese libras or arratels; this is about 1748.6 pounds or 793.15 kilograms.

ton of force (tnf or tn)
a traditional unit of force, equal to 2000 pounds of force (about 8.8964 kilonewtons) in the U.S. and 2240 pounds of force (about 9.9640 kilonewtons) in Britain.

tovar
a traditional weight unit of Bulgaria, equal to 100 oka; this is roughly 280 pounds or 128 kilograms.

tower weights
the weight system used as the basis for English coinage during the medieval era; it is named for the Tower of London, where the Royal Mint was located. The system was based on the tower pound of 5400 grains (about 0.7714 avoirdupois pounds or 349.91 grams). The pound was divided into 12 ounces, and each ounce contained 20 pennyweight. (This structu...

toz
a symbol for the troy ounce , the traditional unit for weighing precious metals.

tpi
an abbreviation for 'threads per inch,' a unit commonly used to describe screws and other items with similar threads.

tray
an informal unit of volume used for berries in U.S. retail produce markets. Berries are typically stocked in corrugated cardboard trays holding six containers of one (dry) quart each, a total volume of about 6.6 liters.

trey
an old English word for three, derived from the old French treis (now spelled trois). The word survives as the name for a three-spot showing in dice or a three card in card games.

triad
a unit of quantity equal to 3.

triennium
a traditional unit of time equal to 3 years.

trilliard
a unit of quantity equal to 10²¹, which is one sextillion in American terminology or 1000 trillion in traditional British terminology. The name is coined to parallel milliard, which has long been a name for 1000 million.

trimester
a unit of time equal to 3 months or 1/4 year; another name for the quarter . At certain U.S. colleges a trimester is an academic term roughly 14 weeks long. In reckoning the length of human pregnancies, a trimester is a unit of 14 weeks, with the first trimester beginning on the first day of the last menstrual period.

trio
a traditional unit of quantity equal to 3. The word is Italian. It originated in music during the Baroque era (early 1700's) in its meaning as a composition in three parts.

triple, triplet
a group of 3 items, especially 3 identical items; the word triplet is also used for one member of such a group. Mathematicians prefer triple for a set of three elements.

trug
a basket having a shallow, boat-like shape. Invented in Sussex, England, trugs come in many sizes; small ones are often used by gardeners to carry cut flowers. In the U.S., a trug of grain was formerly considered to equal exactly 2/3 U.S. bushel (23.493 liters).

truss
a traditional weight unit, generally equal to 4 stone or 56 pounds (about 25.4 kilograms). The truss was used primarily for measuring hay. In 1795, Parliament specified that a truss of hay should equal 56 pounds for old hay or 60 pounds (about 27.2 kilograms) for new hay.

tsubo
an informal unit of area used in Japan to measure area inside buildings. One tsubo is an area of about 3.3 square meters (3.95 square yards), an area that can be covered neatly by two traditional tatami mats. See tatami, above.

tu
a traditional Chinese unit of distance equal to 250 li. Using the late nineteenth century definition of the li as 2115 feet, the tu was equal to 100.14 miles or 161.13 kilometers.

tub
a wide, low container for liquids, generally not of any standard size. During the Prohibition era in the U.S. (1920-1933) liquor smugglers often carried their cargo in tubs holding 4 gallons (15.14 liters). In this they were following an old English tradition dating back at least to tea smugglers of the eighteenth century, who used similar 4-gallon...

tumbler
another name for the U.S. cup.

tumblerful
another name for the breakfast cup, a unit of volume used in British food recipes.

turbidity unit
see NTU.

turn
another name for a revolution, that is, a unit of angle measure equal to 360°.

Twaddle scale
a specific gravity scale; see degree Twaddle.

twelfth
a unit used in music to describe the ratio in frequency between notes. Two notes differ by a twelfth if the higher note has frequency exactly 3 times the frequency of the lower one. On the standard 12-tone scale, the perfect twelfth is approximated as 19 half steps, corresponding to a frequency ratio of 2^19/12 = 2.9966.

twelvemonth
an old English name for a year.

typp
abbreviation for thousand yards per pound, a unit formerly used to describe yarn density. 1 typp equals about 2.015 907 meters per gram, and n typp corresponds to a yarn density of 2.015 907/n tex (see above).

ua
an alternate symbol for the astronomical unit (au).

UI
an alternate symbol for the international unit (IU). In many languages, the two words of the phrase 'international unit' are reversed. In French, for example, the phrase is unité international.