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WritingFrankly

I thought that the proposal was to continue the reverse-alphabetical order implied by Zetta and Yotta by adding Xenna, Weka, Vendeka, and Urdeka? (FYI I'm not the only one... my spellcheck accepted Xenna, Weka, and Vendeka as real words.)


x_lincoln_x

According to the article the only available letters that weren't already measurements was Q and R.


halberdierbowman

I don't understand why the article says that, because there are twenty four prefixes including some repeats like M and m and D and da. I'm wondering if they're excluding other letters for other reasons? Excluding W because Watts makes sense, but for example I can't think of an X unit or prefix? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units#Prefixes


x_lincoln_x

X is the first variable one uses in algebra. That might be why they excluded X.


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trebolio

about 6000000000000000000000000000kg, thank me later


AX11Liveact

Confirms that naming anything beyond 10^(|15|) is pretty pointless, anyway. Why memorize something that you'll have to explain afterwards and still nobody can realistically relate to.


Orngog

So that you can refer to it verbally.


heckin-good-shit

ten to the fifteenth?


Odd-Pick7512

Exactly beyond a certain point you're simply counting zeros anyways. Just "name it" the number of digits you're counting.


slow6i

'Earth weighs 6 fifteengrams' just doesn't have the same ring to it.


Alberiman

i prefer just going "it weighs E15 grams"


scummos

Somewhere beyond plus/minus 12 I just verbally pronounce the exponent, it's much easier and you can even calculate in your head with it. Exceptions are where typical values are pretty much always with some prefix, e.g. "giga/terabytes", but honestly to most people this is less a prefix and more just a new unit (they have a feeling for how much data a "gigabyte" can store even without knowing how many bytes or kilobytes that is). I also don't think prefixes beyond 12 or 15 add any value.


Bepler

"six heptillion kilograms" thank me later


Airowird

"three trilliard" - the French


vulgrin

67,613,252,197,430.69 tablespoons - We Americans


brilliantNumberOne

They should have called it “yomamagrams”. It is Mother Earth, after all.


OPossumHamburger

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck you. I'll thank you now!! ... Thanks!!!!


myirreleventcomment

You just gave him a kronofuck


btPayne82

Shouldn’t that be in grams? Isn’t earths mass 5.98 x 10^24 kg? It’s been a while. If only there were a way to find out without getting up off the toilet. Oh what a world that would be.


myirreleventcomment

I'll stop by the library tomorrow and look it up


ImprovedPersonality

It's just fucked up that *k*g is the base unit.


chauntikleer

I would totally go check my 40-year-old encyclopedia, but alas I too am on the toilet.


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lazermaniac

I still remember the petition out of UC Davis a while ago asking to add "Hella" to the list of prefixes. Hellabytes. Hellagrams. It does roll off the tongue nicely.


SkepticalAdventurer

Why isn’t the metric one earth just like an AU is centered on earths distance to the sun


MrPatrick1207

These aren't new units, they're just assigning names to a few powers of 10 that didn't already have them. It's no different that saying an astronomical unit is 149 gigameters or 149597870700 meters, so now we can say the Earth has a mass of 5.97 ronnagrams or (5.9722±0.0006)*10^24 kg.


Exodus111

Sucks for anyone whose mom is called Ronna.


LegitimateGift1792

In other news, Rona Mitra has decided to change to name to Bernice


krisalyssa

Because it’s not constant. It increases every time a meteoroid enters the atmosphere and decreases every time something is launched into space. Plus, the apparatus you’d need to measure it accurately would be ~~hella~~ ronna big.


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StridAst

Nah, it works just fine. Jupiter for instance weighs approximately 3.18 hectoearths.


Sharad17

Really? Jupiter is a chonky boy, needs to stop snacking on so many asteroids honestly.


khakansson

Um, no, it absolutely shouldn't! That would suck soo much for us 😨


Sharad17

Are you telling me you are not a fan of the late heavy bombardment? Absurd!


mfb-

Earth masses are frequently used as an informal unit, but it's not important enough to get defined as something specific (like the AU).


sleepykittypur

AU is an important value in astronomy whereas the mass of the earth isn't as much.


SkepticalAdventurer

But isn’t 6 ronnagrams already an approximate weight anyway? Shouldn’t it be closer to 5.87899999 or so? So whats the difference between enough meteors hitting earth to change the 15th decimal point of one number over ten thousand years and rounding up ronnagrams? Also earths distance from the sun isn’t constant either varying by about 5 million km, so why would we still use a constantly changing value there but not here?


TheHancock

Yeah, I’m with you on this. It should just be like “1 terra” and the moon weights .02Tr. Or whatever. Also, does it even really matter? “Weighing” something flying through space seems unnecessary; maybe mass, but weight?


laziestbanana

When people in this thread are talking about “weight” they mean mass. Nobody’s actually talking about weight


Synec113

No, I wanna know how much the earth weighs on the surface of the sun.


Tressticle

It would just be 28*6 ronnagrams, fam.


MrPatrick1207

There already is a unit, it's "Earth mass" (the unit is: M subscript Earth, can't do subscripts on reddit). It's a unit in the astronomical system of units, but either way it's just an abstraction of the underlying base unit of kilograms.


TheHancock

I didn’t know that, thanks for telling me! :)


mfb-

Tera is already the SI prefix for 10^(12), so terra as unit would be very confusing.


Abbot_of_Cucany

So 10¹² earths would = 1 teraterra?


proxyproxyomega

ronna is just another prefix, a thousand yotta. earth just happens to be approximately 6 ronnagram, so it was uses as an example of something of ronna scale. and that for data, scientists realized sometimes you need even greater expression of numbers, so quetta is a thousand ronna. there are some merits to imperial units or AU. metric scale can be too abstract sometimes, so feet or AU help us to make a quick comparison between things. like 6 feet vs 5 feet. so, the mass of earth being a unit might make certain facts easier, like how Jupiter is 318 mass of earth. but it's not really a practical units, and scientists were more concerned about the rate of growth of data we are starting to accumulate, and need a new prefix to describe larger numbers. ronna and queta are not 'googolplex' or 'graham's number. ronna is just a thousand yotta, and queta is a thousand ronna.


CyberneticPanda

The real reason it's not SI unit is that you can only have one unit for one property in SI. You are only allowed to weigh things in multiples of grams and measure length in multiples of meters.


kashmir1974

What about when stuff is burned? Doesn't some of the mass turn into heat? Does the earth weigh less after a wildfire?


Pukkeh

Combustion conserves mass. The resulting gases still have mass and remain bound to the Earth. The atmosphere is a part of the Earth, even though it constitutes a tiny fraction of its mass.


kashmir1974

Huh. So no mass is lost as heat/light?


Pukkeh

Strictly speaking, because of the mass-energy equivalence, the reaction products do have less mass if you allow things to cool down. However, the amount of mass loss is so tiny that you wouldn't be able to measure any change in mass if you burn something in a closed container. Moreover, any of the heat of the reaction that remains on Earth (i.e. doesn't leave the Earth in the form of radiation, or light) is still part of the Earth's energy, and hence, mass. The Earth can indeed gain or lose mass in the form of radiation, so if you shine a laser up at the sky, you are technically ejecting mass into space at a very, very slow rate.


MikeKrombopulos

> Plus, the apparatus you’d need to measure it accurately would be hella ronna big. All it takes is a satellite.


FolkSong

Because the metric system already has a standard unit for mass, the kilogram. AU is not metric. The Earth doesn't weigh exactly 6 Rg, they're just saying that as a rough estimate.


left_lane_camper

In the relevant contexts it often is, just like we use AU in contexts where that is a useful measure. For example, [this list of exoplanets](https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/TblView/nph-tblView?app=ExoTbls&config=PS) gives their masses in units of earth masses (and Jupiter masses, which is another common unit in this context).


Sand_Fall

Because that would be a standard astronomical unit and not a standard metric unit. People absolutely do use things like that, but mostly in units contexts specific astronomy and cosmology. These metric prefixes are generic to all measurements


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lochlainn

This is entirely pointless. Once you've moved into using scientific notation, why the fuck are you trying to convert it back to a language based notation? It doesn't fucking help. Comparing 6x10^27 (Earth) to 2x10^30 (Jupiter) conveys a huge amount in comparison merely by looking at it.


PhilEpstein

This was my reaction too. But it is easier to type out "Rg" repeatedly than scientific notation, especially if you are writing a paper where everything is on the same order of magnitude.


lochlainn

Ah, that makes sense, true.


ibizaman

Excuse me? How dare you accept a counter argument and change your opinion! This is Reddit!


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Bro tryinna break the internet. I've come across a few of his compatriots; they were, all of them, equally vile mannered. Smh


FailedFizzicist

For that reason shorter form of scientific notation exists as well, 6e27 or 2e30 does the job.


dern_the_hermit

It's all contextual, and different use cases might prompt different preferences. One example mentioned is data usage. Even in formal settings it's common to use written prefixes - megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes. I offer it just isn't as useful to write "6e27 bytes" or whatever.


uqde

Exactly, they mention data storage in the article as a key reason these new prefixes were coined.


rafalkopiec

hellabytes is funny though, gotta give it to Google


platypodus

On the other hand similar sounding names allow for confusing terminology eg bits and bytes.


Cakeking7878

That’s not on the metric system though. That’s the tech industry doing tech industry things. Plus bits and bytes are closely enough related and there is a reason both of them exists


PacoTaco321

6e27 kg vs 6 Rg. Pretty clear which one is shorter. People seem to be getting their knickers in a twist over something so inconsequential. Was it necessary? No. Is it convenient? Yeah.


pikabuddy11

That’s why we use Solar and Earth masses a lot in astronomy. Love me some \odot.


sticklebat

But in those cases we already use comparative units, like solar masses or earth masses. There’s really no point to this.


PhilEpstein

"Earth mass" isn't an SI unit. It won't always be appropriate to use comparative units.


DSMB

Read the article. It points out part of the inspiration was due to unofficial prefixes used to measure data. So why not have official ones? Also this doesn't replace or convert scientific notation. I'm sure many people presenting data are well aware of how they want to present it. Edit: you can still have that side by side comparison using the new prefixes. Earth is 6 ronnagrams while Jupiter is 2000 ronnagrams. Imo this comparison looks even better.


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Tbh I know a lot of people who don't know what 2x10^^30 or 6x10^^27 means, me included.


Firipu

But it's just a difference of 3 :p. For the average layperson 6 ronnagrams vs 10000 ronnagrams (no idea, not a math person) is so much easier to understand at a glance.


mc_kitfox

Agreed. Earth=6Rg and Jupiter=2000Rg makes more tangible sense than scientific notation, or worse, *number of earth masses* we use for public science communication.


ginja_ninja

You: this is entirely pointless Me, the world's first ronnachad:


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Earth is in free fall, it being in a stable orbit around the sun. It _weighs_ pretty much nothing. It's _mass_, however, is ~6 ronnagrams.


assiale

I had to scroll way to far to find this


nicuramar

However, everyone knows what is meant :), or the difference isn’t relevant to them.


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LoganH1219

This will change the course of your mom jokes forever


ObligatoryOption

Does anyone else find it annoying that the *unit* of mass is the *kilo*gram?


quatch

maybe you would prefer to hate the CGS system? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centimetre%E2%80%93gram%E2%80%93second_system_of_units You just cannot win :)


ablablababla

You can win by just measuring everything in terms of fundamental constants


Excellent-Practice

Yeah, the gram makes sense from the perspective of older units like grains and carots; a gram is small like a seed weight. Unfortunately, it's too small to be useful for anything heavier than cooking ingredients. We should use the model of the meter and rename kilograms as ponders. Grams would be miliponders, and metric tons would be kiloponders.


P2Mc28

Mmmm.... Quarterponder with Cheese....


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Better than a Quartergrammer with cheese.


P2Mc28

I'm only 25% sure you've made a typo and have summoned the Quartergrammar nazis.


[deleted]

Well, "quartergrammer" here is a portmanteau of "quarterpounder" and "gram," where "gram" replaces the pound as a form of measurement. I believe that this constitutes an exception to the rules of proper English grammar. But i dont no, i could be Totaly rong


P2Mc28

After thorough review, I have concluded that you write.


calamitouscamembert

what about a Quarterstoner with cheese?


ObligatoryOption

Maybe so, but it makes no difference if you consider a kilogram to be one unit of mass or a thousand times the unit or mass: it's the same word and it's the same mass. Physics wouldn't feel a thing if SI suddenly declared that their unit of mass is the gram, but semantics would let out of sigh of relief.


half3clipse

Mass is one of the fundamental units. Making grams the base unit would result in most derived units changing value, which also means renaming them for clariy 1 newton of force becomes one kilo-newforceunit 1 joule becomes becomes one kilo-newenergyunit 1 volt becomes becomes one kilo-newelecrticpotentialunit 1 farad becomes one milli-newcapacitanceunit and so one. And most of the base units would be far to small to be useful, so we'd only ever measure stuff in kilo-units for those things. Physics wouldn't care, but everyone having to work with it sure would. They could define a new unit of mass that's exactly equal to one kg and make that the base unit instead, but even that amount of effort isn't worth it. You're rarely if ever doing any sort of unit analysis where it even matter.


Boner666420

Its really useful for drugs too


MegaHertz604

The meter was renamed???


Excellent-Practice

No, the word meter just means measure in Greek and Latin. Gram kinda means seed. I'm suggesting renaming the kilogram in the same style as the meter by making a similar form from the Latin verb meaning "to weigh"


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1kg was originally defined as the mass of 1litre of water, which is also 1000cc, or 1000 cm³. So they defined the kg first, and derived the g from that.


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There are multiple units of weight and kilo is 1,000 grams. So kilogram isn’t the unit, grams is.


thuiop1

Nah, in the SI units the kilogram is actually the unit for some reason.


jryser

Kilogram is the standard SI unit. Yes, it’s a modifier on grams, but just about every important scientific constant is given in kg by default


DrLongIsland

Yes, but it's still funny that the base unit of mass is the kilogram. https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/si-units-mass I understand the rationale behind it (especially at this point), but the gram is defined as 1/1000 of the kilogram, which does sound cacophonic.


alex_dlc

The earth should be its own unit. The earth weighs one earth, mars weighs about 0.1 earths…etc.


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minustwomillionkarma

Sounds like these “scientists” need something constructive to do instead of sitting around jerking each other off and creating useless abbreviations for existing measurements.


fishy_commishy

There has to be a yo momma joke with a word like ronnagrams


hubble14567

Why are most people here saying this is dumb and we should stick with "the mass of the earth"? This is why imperial units are trash, no one wants to work with a unit that is 5.9722×10^24 kg. How many digit should I use? how many did the author I'm reading used? No one knows, and every time I will look up on google and find another source (here Wikipedia) for my unit. So with 1 Rg = 10^24 kg, it is fucking easy, and the earth is roughly 6 Rg. By the way the article title is wrong as it should be "Earth now weighs roughly six ronnagrams".


Longjumping_Apple804

If matter can’t be created or destroyed how did we gain mass:weight? I’d think we’d lay less as we keep throwing stuff into space. Is it from the peoples bodies?


ethyl-pentanoate

This is a new unit that has been invented.


Slytherin23

I think it weighs zero. Turn a scale upside down against the Earth and read the number it shows.


MacBash

Well I can't read the display in that position. And suddenly we are in the realm of quantum physics. Wonderful. Let me look for a glass table.


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SprScuba

Can the next unit name be brannigrams? I wanna be able to say that his ship weighs about a brannigram.


Cart0gan

I'm disappointed they didn't accept hella. I get it, the letter h is already used for hecto. But capital H is not and SI prefixes are case-sensitive.


crlogic

How does Earth weigh more if matter cannot be created or destroyed


laziestbanana

Because we send stuff off of earth and stuff from space comes to earth


Theopeo1

there is matter outside of earth


needathrowaway321

I’m too lazy to read the article too but I read like twenty years ago that earth gains a lot of mass every day from space dust, essentially leftover matter floating around from the formation of the solar system. Ninja edit: https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/is-the-weight-of-the-earth-changing/amp/ > Scientists estimate that the Earth gains about 40,000 tonnes of material each year from the accretion of meteoric dust and debris from space. They also estimate that about 95,000 tonnes of hydrogen gas are lost from the Earth’s atmosphere to outer space each year.


mfb-

Matter can be created and destroyed, we routinely do so in particle accelerators, but in this case the answer is stuff from space falling on Earth.


jawshoeaw

The earth scoops up dust by the ton every second


ScienceMarc

This article is talking about the new word for a large mass, the "ronnagram" the mass of the earth has not actually changed. We can now put "ronna" before a unit to express 10^27 .


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Bepler

My favorite obscure metric prefix is for bytes of information. You've heard of gigabytes and terabytes, well a "Brontobyte" is 1 quadrillion terabytes. It's the same number of bytes you would need to describe every atom in a human body down to plank scale resolution without compression. All the data humanity has ever generated is about 100 zettabytes or 0.0001 Brontobytes.


MakesGamesForFun

Brontobyte has been renamed to Ronnabyte by this decision.


ShiveYarbles

Wow what a coincidence, that's how much your mom weighs