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

dry pint, dry quart
common names for the U.S. pint and quart units used for dry commodities, used to distinguish these units from the pint and quart used for liquids. The dry units are equal to about 1.163 647 times the corresponding liquid units.

dry ton
see wet ton.

dsp, dssp
symbols for the dessertspoon (2 teaspoons). See 'dessertspoon' above.

duet or duo
a traditional unit of quantity equal to 2. The word duet is a French version of the Italian duo, two.

dunum or donum
a traditional unit of land area in the Middle East and the Balkans. The unit is of Turkish origin, but it seems to be obsolete in modern Turkey. As it is commonly used today in Israel and Palestine and in Croatia and other areas of the former Yugoslavia, the dunum is a metric unit equal to 1000 square meters or 0.1 hectare (about 0.2471 acre). The ...

dyad
a unit of quantity equal to 2. This unit is frequently used in cell biology and biotechnology.

earth-rate unit (eru)
a unit of angular velocity equal to 15° per hour, the rate at which the earth rotates on its axis. This unit is used to measure the drift rates of gyroscopes and various pointing devices in aerospace engineering.

EBC
abbreviation for European Brewing Commission, frequently used for a unit of turbidity equal to 4.08 NTU or FNU.

ecm
a unit of electric dipole moment used in physics. The moment of an electric dipole is the product of an electric charge and the distance by which the charge is displaced from the center of charge. The ecm is the product of the charge e on an electron and a distance of 1 centimeter (cm). In SI units, 1 ecm = 1.602 178 x 10^-21 ...

einstein, Einstein unit (E)
a unit of light energy concentration sometimes used in physical chemistry. One einstein (or Einstein unit) is the energy per mole of photons carried by a beam of monochromatic light. Suppose a beam of light (in vacuum) has frequency v (in hertz) and wavelength l (in meters). Then one einstein is equal to (3.990 313 x 10^-10)v ...

el
the Dutch ell, a traditional unit of length equal to about 68-70 centimeters (roughly 27 inches). See the discussion of the ell, below.

electric horsepower
a unit of power, equal to exactly 746 watts (550.221 foot pounds per second), used in the electric industry. This is slightly larger than the ordinary or mechanical horsepower of exactly 550 foot pounds per second.

electron (me)
the mass of the electron, often used as a unit of mass in particle physics. An electron has a mass of about 9.109 382 x 10^-31 kilogram, 9.109 382 x 10^-28 gram, or 0.510 9989 million electronvolts (MeV, see next two entries).

emu
a CGS unit of magnetic dipole moment equal to 4pi micro-oersteds (1.256 637 x 10^-5 Oe). In SI units, one emu equals 0.001 A•m².

emu/cm3 or emu/cc
a CGS unit of magnetization. In SI units, one emu/cm³ can be interpreted either as 4pi/10 milliteslas (1.256 637 mT) as a unit of magnetic polarization or excess magnetic induction, or as 1000 amperes per meter as a unit of magnetic dipole moment per unit volume.

engineer's chain
see chain.

ennead
a unit of quantity equal to 9, coined from the Greek word for nine, ennea.

Eotvos unit (E)
a unit used in geophysics to measure the change in the acceleration of gravity with horizontal distance. One Eotvos unit equals 10^-9 Gal per centimeter or 10^-4 Gal per kilometer. In proper SI terms, the Eotvos unit equals 10^-9 per second squared (s^-2). The u...

ephah
a ancient unit of volume for grains and dry commodities, used in the Bible. The ephah is believed to equal about 40.32 liters or 1.4239 cubic feet. This is equivalent to about 1.144 U.S. bushel.

epoch
a measure of time used in astronomy. In an epoch system, times are specified as years and fractions of years (such as epoch 1998.5). To set a starting point for the system, a specific epoch time must be fixed as a particular clock time of a particular date. In 1984, the International Astronomical Union agreed that epoch times should be fixed by req...

epoch
a unit of time equal to 19 years, used in predictions of the tides. In this use, an epoch is another name for a Metonic cycle. All possible alignments of the sun and moon occur in this 19-year cycle, so tidal heights and other tidal phenomena are averaged over this period.

esu
an abbreviation for 'electrostatic unit.' See stat-.

ett- or etto- (h-)
Italian spelling for the metric prefix hecto- (100). The hectare, for example, is ettaro in Italian. The International System allows national variations in spelling of the names of units, but not in the symbols used for them; thus the symbol for etto- is h-.

etto (hg)
an informal Italian name for the hectogram, a unit of mass equal to 100 grams or about 3.5274 ounces.

EU
a symbol sometimes used for the enzyme unit (see above).

exajoule (EJ)
a metric unit of energy. One exajoule equals 947.817 (U.S.) trillion Btu, 277.7778 petawatt hours, or about 9480 megatherms. The unit is often used in discussing global energy production, which is measured in hundreds of exajoules per year.

exameter (Em)
a metric unit of distance equal to 10¹⁵ kilometers. This is equivalent to about 621.371 trillion miles, 105.7 light years, or 32.408 parsecs. One exameter is approximately the distance from the earth to the Hyades star cluster in Taurus.

exbi- (Ei-)
a binary prefix meaning 2⁶⁰ = 1 152 921 504 606 846 976. This prefix, adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 1998, replaces exa- for binary applications in computer science. The prefix is a contraction of 'exabinary.'

exposure value (EV)
a unit used in photography to describe relative exposure. EV 0 is assigned to a specific combination of exposure time and lens aperture, such as 1 second at f/1. The difference between two exposure values is equal to the number of stops separating the two exposure settings. Different combinations of exposure time and lens aperture can have the same...

eyesight
a term often used with a Snellen fraction in phrases such as '20/20 eyesight.'

face cord
a unit of volume for firewood. See rick.

faden
an alternate name for the klafter, a German unit of distance.

faggot
a traditional unit of volume for firewood. A faggot was 3 feet in length and 2 feet in circumference; this is a volume of about 0.955 cubic feet or 27 liters. There are about 134 faggots in a cord.

Fahrenheit
see degree Fahrenheit.

fall
a traditional unit of area equal to one square fall . In the traditional Scots system of measurement, a fall of land equals about 346 square feet or 32.15 square meters. A traditional Scots acre was equal to 160 falls or about 6150 square English yards (1.27 English acres or 0.514 hectare). In the English system a fall of land is 506.25 ...

fardel
an old English word meaning a fourth part, used sometimes as a unit of land area equal to 1/4 virgate, 1/2 nook, or about 8-10 acres.

farsakh, farasang
Arabic and Persian names, respectively, for the unit classically known as the parasang.

farthing
an old English word for 1/4, later used as the name of a coin equal in value to 1/4 penny.

farthingdale
an older name for the rood , a unit of land area equal to 1/4 acre (0.1012 hectare). 'Farthingdale,' like 'fardel,' means a fourth part.

farthingdale
a fardel (see above).

FAU
abbreviation for formazin attenuation unit, a unit of water turbidity. This unit is used to express turbidity measured by a nephelometer that measures directly the fraction of light transmitted through a water sample as compared to the fraction transmitted through a standard preparation of formazin. The procedure is specified by standard ISO 7027 o...

fatt
a traditional unit of volume for grain, generally equal to 9 bushels or 1/4 chalder. This would be about 317 liters based on the traditional grain bushel now used in the U.S. or about 327 liters based on the British imperial bushel.

fbm
a symbol sometimes used for the board foot. The 'bm' stands for 'board measure.'

feddan
an Egyptian unit of land area, formerly used throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The feddan equals about 0.42 hectare or 1.038 acre.

FEU
a unit of cargo capacity, especially for container ships. These ships carry cargo in standard metal boxes, called containers, that can be transferred easily to trains or trucks. FEU is an abbreviation for 'forty-foot equivalent unit.' One FEU represents the cargo capacity of a standard container 40 feet long, 8 feet wide, and (usually) a little ove...

field box
a unit of volume in the U.S. citrus fruit industry, equal to 10 boxes or 16 bushels (0.5638 cubic meter).

fillette
a half bottle of champagne (375 milliliters).

finger
a traditional unit of distance equal to 2 nails or 4.5 inches (11.43 centimeters). This unit represents the length of the middle finger, from the tip to the joint where the finger is attached to the hand.

finger
a name for the digit, a unit of distance equal to 3/4 inch (19.05 mm). The finger-width was a common unit of measurement in Anglo-Saxon England. After the 12-inch English foot became established, the finger survived as an informal measure.

Finsen unit (FU)
a unit formerly used in medicine to measure the intensity of the ultraviolet light used in various medical treatments. Ultraviolet radiation of the standard wavelength 296.7 nanometers has intensity 1 Finsen unit if its energy density is 10⁵ watts per square meter. The unit honors the Danish physician Niels Finsen (1860-1904)...

firkin (fir)
a traditional unit of weight for butter and soap, equal to 4 stone or 56 pounds (about 25.40 kilograms).

firlot
a traditional Scottish unit of volume equal to 4 Scots pecks. This is about 36.3 liters for wheat, peas, or beans, or about 48.6 liters for oats or barley. The firlot corresponds closely to the U.S. and British bushel.

fiscal year
a unit of one year used for budgeting or accounting. A fiscal year has the same length as an ordinary year, but its starting date may be different. In the U.S., for example, the federal government's fiscal year starts on October 1. Generally, fiscal year n ends in ordinary year n, so the U.S. federal fiscal year 2005 begins October 1, 2004 and ends...

fist
an informal unit of angle measure equal to 10°, which is the approximate angle subtended by a clenched fist held at arm's length (this works for both adults and children). This unit is used by amateur astronomers to estimate angular distances in the sky.

flagon
a traditional unit of liquid volume, generally equal to the wine (or U.S. liquid) gallon (about 3.785 liters). A flagon is a large, narrow-necked pitcher or bottle.

flock
an old English unit of quantity equal to 2 score or 40.

floor
another name for a story as a unit of height for buildings. In Britain, the floor above the ground floor is usually called the first floor, so a three-floor building has four stories. In the U.S., the numbering of floors is most often the same as the numbering of stories.

fluid scruple
a traditional British unit of liquid volume equal to 1/3 fluidram or about 1.1839 milliliters.

flux unit (fu)
a former name for the jansky, a unit used in astronomy to measure the strength of a radio signal received from an object in the sky.

FNU
abbreviation for formazin nephelometric unit, a unit of water turbidity equivalent to the NTU (nephelometric turbidity unit) used in the U.S. The symbol FNU, specified by the International Organization for Standardization in its standard ISO 7027, is widely used outside the U.S. See NTU.

fod
the traditional Danish foot, equal to about 12.365 inches or 31.41 centimeters.

folio
in traditional legal practice, a unit of quantity for the words in a legal document. In the U.S., a folio is 100 words; in Britain it is 72 or 90 words, depending on the type of document. In the days before mechanical copying, clerks were paid by the folio to copy legal documents. The word is from the Latin folium, leaf, and originally referred to ...

food calorie
the large or kilogram Calorie; see calorie .

football field
a common informal unit of distance in the United States and Canada. Americans aren't quite agreed as to whether the unit is exactly 100 yards (91.44 meters), the distance between the goal lines on an American football field, or 120 yards (109.728 meters), the distance including the two end zones. Canadian football fields are 110 yards (100.58 meter...

foot of head (ft hd)
a traditional unit of water pressure used in plumbing and hydraulics. 'Head' is short for 'headwaters'; it refers to the depth of the water upstream from the point at which the pressure is measured. One foot of head is equivalent to a pressure of 0.433 lb/in², 2.989 kilopascals (kPa), 29.89 millibars (mb), or 0.882 inches of ...

foot per minute (ft/min or fpm)
a traditional unit of velocity or flow rate. One foot per minute equals exactly 30.48 cm/min, 5.08 mm/s, or 0.018 288 miles per hour.

forpet
Scottish for a 1/4 part, generally meaning 1/4 peck; thus the forpet is another name for a lippie.

fother
a traditional English unit of weight for lead. The fother, equal to 30 fotmals (next entry), was always a little smaller than a (long) ton. The original version seems to have been equivalent to 2160 avoirdupois pounds, and the version still being used in the nineteenth century was equal to 19.5 hundredweight or 2184 pounds.

fotmal
a traditional English unit of weight for lead. In medieval England the fotmal was equal to 70 'mercantile' pounds, which is equivalent to 72 avoirdupois pounds.

fpm
a common abbreviation for foot per minute (ft/min), a traditional unit of flow (see above).

fps
a common abbreviation for foot per second (ft/s or ft/sec), a traditional unit of flow, or for frames per second, a unit used in video processing.

frail
a kind of basket, sometimes used as a commercial unit of weight for fruit. Depending on the item, a frail could equal anywhere from 32 to 75 pounds (15-34 kilograms). In the nineteenth century a frail of raisins was often taken to equal 50 pounds (22.68 kilograms).

freight ton
originally a unit of volume equal to 40 cubic feet; see ton . More recently, another name for the revenue ton.

French (Fg or Ch)
a unit of distance used for measuring the diameters of small tubes such as catheters, fiber optic bundles, etc. One French is equal to 1/3 millimeter (about 13.123 mils). The name and the symbol Ch refer to the Charrière gauge scale, which is often called the French scale.

frigorie
a unit of refrigeration formerly used in Europe, equal to 1 (kilogram) Calorie per hour (4.1868 kilojoules per hour, or 3.9683 Btu per hour). The name was coined from the calorie by replacing the Latin calor, for heat, with frigor, for cold.

FTE
abbreviation for 'full time equivalent,' a unit of the rate of work equivalent to that performed by a employee who holds a regular appointment. In the U.S., the FTE is generally equal to 40 hours per week. The symbol FTE is also used for the amount of work performed at this rate over a set period of time, such as a month (170 hours) or a year (2080...

Fujita scale (EF)
an empirical scale for estimating the wind speed of a tornado from the damage it causes. The scale, as developed by the American meteorologists Theodore Fujita and Allen Pearson, ranged from F0 to F5. In 2007, the U.S. National Weather Service began using a revised version called the EF (Enhanced Fujita) scale; the designations in the new scale are...

full step
see step .

Ga
symbol for one billion (10⁹) years. The a stands for the Latin annus, year.

gage
alternate spelling for gauge (see below).

galactic year
the unit of time in which the Solar System makes one revolution around the Milky Way galaxy. The galactic year is estimated to be about 225 million ordinary years. The age of the Solar System is about 20 galactic years.

gallon (gal)
a traditional unit of volume in Scotland equal to 4 Scots quarts. This is almost exactly 3 British Imperial gallons, 3.6 U.S. liquid gallons, or 13.63 liters.

garnets
a traditional unit of liquid volume in Russia. The garnets is equivalent to approximately 3.28 liters; this is about 3.47 U.S. quarts or 2.89 British imperial quarts.

gauge (ga)
a traditional unit measuring the thickness of sheet metal. Larger gauge numbers represent thinner metal: 10 gauge represents a thickness of 0.1345 inch (3.416 millimeters) and each increase of 1 in the gauge number corresponds to a reduction of about 10% in the thickness. A table is provided.

gauge (ga)
a traditional unit measuring the thickness of plastic film. For this purpose 1 gauge equals 0.01 mil or 10^-5 inch (0.254 micrometer).

gauge (ga)
a traditional unit measuring the thickness of tennis racquet strings. There are two systems in use. In the U.S. system larger gauge numbers indicate thinner strings; in the European system larger gauge numbers indicate thicker strings. A table is provided.

gauss (G or Gs)
a former name for the CGS unit of magnetic field strength, officially renamed the oersted in 1930.

gauss (G or Gs)
the CGS unit of magnetic dipole moment per unit volume, more commonly written emu/cm³ or emu/cc. In this use the gauss equals 1000 amperes per meter in SI units.

gear inch
a traditional unit for measuring the gears of bicycles. In low gears, the pedals are easy to turn but have to be turned very fast to achieve any speed; in high gears the pedals are harder to turn but don't have to be turned fast to achieve high speed. The gear value is computed in gear inches as the diameter of the drive wheel times the size of the...

gee pound
another name for a slug.

generation (gen)
an informal unit of time. Roughly speaking, a generation is the average length of time between the birth of a parent and the birth of the child. This leaves a question, however: should just the father, or just the mother, or both parents be included in the calculation? Various answers to this question, plus a lack of consistent data, have led to a ...

German legal meter (Glm)
an obsolete unit of distance, longer than a meter by 13.5965 micrometers (less than 1 part in 70 000). This unit was used in surveying in Namibia, a former German colony.

geographical mile
another name for the nautical mile, especially the Admiralty mile (6080 feet or 1853.184 meters). For a (different) German use of the term geographische meile, see meile.

GeV
the symbol for one billion (10⁹) electronvolts. Thanks to Einstein's equation E = mc² equating mass wth energy, the GeV can be regarded either as a unit of energy equal to 160.217 646 2 picojoules, or as a unit of mass equal to 1.782 662 x 10^-24 gram or 1.073 544 atomic mass unit.

gibi- (Gi-)
a binary prefix meaning 2³⁰ = 1 073 741 824. This prefix, adopted by the International Electrotechnical Commission in 1998, is supposed to replace giga- for binary applications in computer science. (This innovation does not appear to be sucessful.) The prefix is a contraction of 'gigabinary.'

gig
an informal contraction of the gigabyte (GB) common in computer science, especially as a unit of storage capacity.

gigabecquerel (GBq)
a unit of radioactivity equal to one billion atomic disintegrations per second or 27.027 millicuries.

gigaflops (Gflops)
a unit of computing power equal to one billion (10⁹) floating point operations per second. See flops.

gigagram (Gg)
an SI unit of mass equal to 10⁹ grams, one million kilograms, or 1 kilotonne (1000 metric tons). This unit is used in scientific contexts, such as the measurement of atmospheric emissions. One gigagram equals about 2.2046 million pounds or 1102.3 U.S. (short) tons.

gigahertz (GHz)
a unit of frequency equal to 10⁹ per second, or 1 per nanosecond. Cellular phones and microwave ovens operate with radio waves having frequencies in the gigahertz range.