How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement
and the University of North Carolina at Chapel
an international symbol for , taken from
the Latin word annus. Although English-speaking countries continue
to use the traditional symbol yr for most purposes, scientists use
the a symbol in papers and textbooks. The symbol is often seen in
combinations such as Ma (million years) or Ga (billion years).
shortened version of am or AM in a statement of time (see below).
a symbol for international standard paper sizes, followed by the size number,
as in A4 for a standard business-letter sheet. A
is provided. A sheet of size An has a width of 100&2-1/4-n/2
centimeters and a length of 100&21/4-n/2
centimeters (rounded to the nearest millimeter). Note: "A" is also the
symbol for the ampere (see below).
see "angstrom star" below.
see "as" below.
a prefix indicating that an electrical unit is part of the
absolute electromagnetic system. These units are also indicated by the notation
emu (as in "volt emu"). Although these units are defined naturally
as part of the CGS system, all of them except the abampere and abcoulomb are
either much too large or much too small for most applications. They have been
replaced almost completely by the corresponding
units. Following are the SI equivalents for each of the "ab" units:
Electric current: 1 abampere = 10
Electric charge: 1 abcoulomb = 10
Capacitance: 1 abfarad = 109
= 1 gigafarad
Inductance: 1 abhenry = 10-9
= 1 nanohenry
Resistance: 1 abohm = 10-9
= 1 nanoohm
Conductance: 1 abmho = 109
Magnetic flux density: 1 abtesla = 10-4
Potential: 1 abvolt = 10-8
= 10 nanovolts
Power: 1 abwatt = 10-7
= 0.1 microwatt
Magnetic flux: 1 abweber = 10-8
absorbance unit (AU)
a logarithmic unit used to measure optical density, the absorbance of light
transmitted through a partially absorbing substance. If T is the percentage
of light transmitted, then the absorbance is defined to be -log10
T absorbance units. An increase in absorbance of 1.0 AU corresponds
to a reduction in transmittance by a factor of 10. If the absorbance is 1.0
AU then 10% of the
at 2.0 AU only 1% of the light is
transmitted, and so on. Note that AU is also used in astronomy as a symbol
for the astonomical unit (see below).
symbols for alcohol by volume and alcohol by weight. 1% abv = 1%
and 1% abw = 1% .
academic year
a unit of time in U.S. schools, generally equal to 9 months beginning in
August or September.
accm, acfm, acfh, acfd, acim (etc.)
symbols for "actual cubic centimeters per minute", "actual cubic feet per
minute", "actual cubic feet per hour", "actual cubic feet per day", and "actual
cubic inches per minute." Many similar abbreviations are in use. These are
units of flow rate for gases. See .
a symbol for the &anatomical Chinese inch& or
acoustic ohm
any one of several units measuring sound resistance. These units got their
name by analogy with electric resistance, which is measured in .
The sound resistance across a surface in a given medium is defined to be
pressure of the sound wave at the surface divided by the volume velocity.
Unfortunately, the result is often stated in "acoustic ohms" no matter
units are used to measure pressure and time. In the
system, the acoustic ohm equals 1 microbar second per cubic centimeter (µbar·s/cm3),
which is the same as 1 dyn·s/cm5. In the
system, the acoustic ohm is equal to the
1 pascal second per cubic meter (Pa·s/m3), or 1 N·s/m5.
The CGS acoustic ohm equals 105 MKS acoustic ohms. See also .
acre (ac or A)
a unit of area used for measuring real estate in English-speaking countries.
"Acre," an Old English word meaning a field, is derived from the Latin ager
and Greek agros, also meaning a field. The acre was originally defined
as the area that could be plowed in a day by a yoke of oxen. It was in use
in England at least as early as the eighth century, and by the end of the
ninth century it was generally understood to be the area of a field one
long by 4 rods [1] (or 1 chain) wide. Thus an acre is 10 square chains, 160
square rods, 43 560 square feet or 4840 square yards. There are exactly 640
acres in a square mile. In metric countries the unit corresponding to the
acre is the , which is 10,000 square
meters (the area of a square 100 meters on each side). One acre is equal to
0.404 687 3 hectare. Among traditional European land area units, the acre
is typical in being defined as a day's work but unusual in not being visualized
as the area of a square. Similar units include the French ,
north German and Dutch , south German
and Swiss , Austrian ,
and Czech .
acre (used as a unit of length)
various historical references mention &acre& as a unit of length,
but there has never been any official definition of such a unit. In older
works, especially in Britain, an acre of length is a
and an acre of breadth is 4 ,
since those were the historic dimensions of an acre. The acre is also the
area of a square about 208.710 feet (roughly 208 feet 8.5 inches or 63.615
meters) on a side, and sometimes, mostly in the U.S. and Canada, this length
was called an acre or the side of an acre. In contrast, the original
area unit was sometimes called the square acre. All these usages are obsolete.
acre foot (ac ft or af)
a unit of volume used to measure the capacity of reservoirs. One acre foot
is a volume one foot deep covering an area of one acre. Thus an acre foot
contains exactly 43 560 cubic feet, about 325 851.4 U.S. ,
cubic meters (0.123 348 hectare meter). The symbol af
is widely used in reservoir management in the U.S., often in combinations
such as kaf (1000 acre feet) or maf ( this
symbol should be Maf).
acre inch (ac in)
a unit of volume equal (of course) to 1/12 acre foot. An acre inch contains
exactly 3630 cubic feet, about 27 154.29 U.S. ,
or about 102.7902 cubic meters.
abbreviation for the Latin anno domini, "year of the Lord," the traditional
designation for years of the common or Christian era. This abbreviation is
often replaced by
(common era), especially
in countries where Christianity is not a dominant religion. See
for additional information.
a suffix added to a number to create a unit of quantity equal to that number:
for example, a 24ad is a unit of quantity equal to 24. Units of quantity equal
to 1 through 8 are known, respectively, as the monad, dyad, triad, tetrad,
pentad, hexad, heptad, and octad, terms coined by adding -ad to the Greek
numbers 1-8.
Admiralty mile
a unit of time equal to one billion years (1 Ga). Proposed in 1957 for use
in geology, the aeon is not approved by the SI and hasn't found much favor.
an abbreviation for annual fuel utilization efficiency, a measure
of the efficiency of a gas furnace. The rating is designed to represent the
percentage of the fuel energy actually delivered as heat energy, averaged
over the course of a typical heating season. The actual calculation is quite
complex, taking many properties of the furnace into account. Older furnaces
have ratings of 60% AFUE the newest high-efficiency furnaces
are rated in the 90%-95% AFUE range. The U.S. Department of Energy requires
new furnaces to operate at 78% AFUE or better.
agate, agate line
a traditional unit of area used in printing and advertising. The agate line
is equal to 1/14 inch (1.814 millimeters) multiplied by the width of the printed
line. Its name comes from the traditional type size called agate, which sets
approximately 14 lines to the inch (very small print!).
abbreviation for the Latin anno hegirae, traditionally used in the
West to designate years of the Islamic calendar. The Islamic calendar is
counting twelve lunar months to the year (see
[2]). Thus its years are shorter than ordinary solar years. Years
are counted from the day of the Hijra (Hegira in Latin), the flight of Mohammed
from Mecca to Medina, which is fixed at 16 July 622 AD in the Julian calendar.
The Islamic year AH 1431 begins at sunset of 13 December 2009 in the current
(Gregorian) calendar. Link: Islamic
from IslamicFinder.org.
a unit used in astronomy in measuring the absorption of light from the stars
by the atmosphere. One air mass is the amount of absorption of light from
a star directly overhead (at the zenith). The absorption of light from
other stars is greater, because their light must pass obliquely through the
atmosphere. If Z is the zenithal angle, the angle between the
star and the zenith, then the absorption of its light is estimated to be sec
Z air masses, "sec" being the secant trigonometric function.
an engineering unit used to express the effective cleaning power of a vacuum
cleaner or central vacuum system. The air watt is practically the same as
the ordinary . Measurements of vacuum power,
however, are computed from English units using the following formula established
by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM): power in air watts
equals 0.117354&F·S, or very nearly F&S/8.5, where F is
the air flow in the system in cubic feet per minute (CFM) and S is the suction
pressure in
This definition makes the air watt equal to 0.9983 watt.
ale gallon
a traditional unit of liquid volume in Britain and the U.S., the ale gallon
was equal to 282 cubic inches (4.6212 liters) or about 1.2208 U.S.liquid gallon
(1.0165 British Imperial gallon). Standardized in the sixteenth century under
Queen Elizabeth I, the ale gallon remained in use well into the nineteenth
century but is obsolete today. It is also called the beer and ale gallon.
allergy unit (AU)
a measure of the potency of the compounds used by physicians in skin testing
for allergies. The units are calibrated for each compound and the strength
of the solutions is stated in allergy units per milliliter (AU/ml).
a traditional unit of volume in Spain and Portugal. The two countries used
the name for units of quite different sizes. The Spanish almude is comparable
to the B it holds about 4.625
liters, equivalent to 1.017 Imperial gallon or 1.222 U.S. liquid gallon. The
Portuguese a it holds about 16.7 liters, which is 3.67
Imperial gallons or 4.41 U.S. liquid gallons.
aln or alen
a traditional Scandinavian unit of distance very similar to the north German
: roughly 2 feet or 60 centimeters. The
Danish alen, also used in Norway, was equal to 62.77 centimeters (24.71 inches).
The Swedish aln was 2
or 59.38 centimeters
(23.38 inches).
an abbreviation for "alpha tocopherol equivalent," a measure of vitamin
E used in nutrition. Vitamin E is actually a group of related chemical compounds
called tocopherols. The activity, or potency, of vitamin E in a food or food
supplement is measured by the quantity (in milligrams) of alpha tocopherol
(the most active of the forms of the vitamin) which would be equivalent to
the compounds present in the food or supplement. One milligram alpha TE is
equal to 1.5 international units (IU).
alqueire [1]
a traditional unit of volume for dry goods in Portugal and Brazil, equal
to 1/4 fanga (the Portuguese equivalent of the Spanish ).
This is about 13.8 liters or 12.5 U.S. dry .
alqueire [2]
a traditional unit of land area in Portugal and Brazil. Still used commonly
to measure farmland in Brazil, the unit varies considerably from region to
region. One alqueire equals 2.42 hectares (5.980 acres) in S&o P
4.84 hectares (11.960 acres) in R&o de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Goi&s;
9.68 hectares (23.920 acres) in Bah&a, and 2.7225 hectares (6.728 acres)
in the northern part of the country. In Portugal, where the unit is obsolete,
it was much smaller, about 0.14 hectare (0.35 acre).
traditional abbreviation in pharmacy for alternis horis, every other
hour, a unit of frequency sometimes used in medical prescriptions.
am or AM [1]
abbreviation for the Latin ante meridiem, "before noon," used after
a time to indicate that the time is before 12:00 (noon). The notations "am"
and "pm" are used extensively in the United States, Canada, and other countries
where time is usually not stated on a 24-hour basis. By convention, midnight
is represented as 12:00 am and noon as 12:00 pm. In text, however, it is best
to avoid the use of 12:00 am or 12:00 pm since the reader may not be aware
of these conventions.
AM [2]
abbreviation for the Latin anno mundi, "year of the world." This
abbreviation is traditionally used to designate years in the Jewish calendar,
which counts years from the creation of the world as described in the Hebrew
scriptures. The Jewish c its years correspond to ordinary
solar years (see
[2]). The first
day of AM 1 is equivalent to 6 October 3761 BCE in the Julian calendar, and
AM 5769 began at sunset of 29 September 2008 in the current (Gregorian) calendar.
Link: Wikipedia has a good
of the Jewish cale Remy Landau has an exten and a
is available.
units used by physicists to express the relative volume and density of gases.
The amagat volume unit is about 22.414 liters per
(L/mol) or 0.022 414 m3/mol, the volume occupied by a gas at standard
temperature (0.01°C) and standard pressure (1 atmosphere). The amagat
density unit represents the corresponding relative density, which is equal
per , or 44.615 moles per cubic meter (mol/m3), or 0.044
615 mole per liter (mol/L), again provided the measurement is made at standard
temperature and pressure. In general, the ideal gas law shows that the relative
density is equal to P/RT, where P is the pressure on the gas, T is the absolute
temperature (in ) and R is the universal
gas constant, R = 8.314
per mole per
kelvin. The unit honors the Dutch physicist E. H. Amagat (), whose
work included the study of gases under pressure.
an old English unit of volume, used for both liquids and dry goods. The
amber was equal to about 4
or roughly
140 liters.
American run
ampere (A or amp)
electric current, named for the French physicist Andr&-Marie Amp&re
(), one of the pioneers in studying electricity. The current official
definition of the ampere goes like this: suppose we have two parallel conductors,
infinitely long and having negligible cross section. Place these conductors
one meter apart in a perfect vacuum. One ampere is the current which, if it's
flowing in these conductors, creates between them a force of 0.2 micros
per meter of length. (You're welcome to object that no one can make an infinitely
long conductor, nor a perfect vacuum. But scientists can use the idealized
definition to construct appropriate real-world equipment in their laboratories.)
It is likely that new definitions will be adopted at the CGPM meeting in 2011;
the proposed definition is that the ampere represents a flow of exactly 6
241 509 479 607 717 888 elementary charge units (such as electrons) per second.
The other electrical units are all defined in terms of the ampere. For example,
one ampere represents a current flow of one
of charge per second. One ampere of current results from a potential distribution
of resistance, or from a power production rate of one
per volt of potential. The unit is known informally as the amp, but
A is its official symbol.
ampere hour (A·h or amp hr )
a commercial unit of electric charge often used to state the capacity of
a battery. One ampere hour is the charge accumulated by a steady flow of one
ampere for one hour. This is equivalent to exactly 3600 .
ampere per meter (A/m) or ampere-turn per meter
unit of magnetic field strength. One ampere
per meter is equal to pi/250 oersteds (12.566
371 millioersteds) in
units. The ampere per
meter is also the SI unit of "magnetization" in the sense of magnetic dipole
mo in this context 1 A/m = 0.001
per cubic centimeter.
ampere turn (At)
unit of "magnetomotive force." Electric
current passing through a coil of wire generates a magnetic field. This field-generating
ability is called it is equal to the product of the current,
in amperes, and the number of turns of wire in the coil. One ampere turn equals
4pi/10 = 1.256 637
a historic unit of volume. An amphora is the volume of an urn or jar of
the same name. These urns were tall, with handles near the top on both sides
(the word amphora comes from two Greek words meaning "on both sides" and "carry").
Amphoras were the containers of choice for shipping wine and many other commodities
in the ancient world. Archaeologists report that the Greek amphora held about
38.8 liters (10.25 U.S. liquid , or
8.54 British Imperial gallons). The Roman amphora was smaller, about 25.5
liters (6.74 U.S. gallons or 5.61 British Imperial gallons).
anatomical Chinese inch (ACI)
a name in English for the
[2], a unit
of relative distance used in acupuncture.
another name for the anker (see below).
angstrom (&A or A)
a metric unit of length, equal to 0.1 nanometer or 10-10 meter.
Angstroms are used most often to measure the wave length of light waves. There
is a technique called spectroscopy for identifying chemical substances by
the wave lengths of light which they absorb (or emit, depending on the circumstances).
Light shining through or from the substance is passed through a prism, which
separates the various wave lengths to form a colorful spectrum. The spectrum
often includes bright bands corresponding to wave lengths at which the substance
emits light, or dark bands if the substance is absorbing light. The pattern
of bands identifies the substance in somewhat the same way a fingerprint identifies
a person. One of the pioneers of spectroscopy was the Swedish physicist Anders
Jon &Angstr&m (), and in his honor the wave lengths of
light waves are customarily stated in angstroms. Although English speakers
usually pronounce the word as if it were English, the Swedish pronunciation
is closer to "ong-strerm."
angstrom star (&A* or A*)
a unit used to measure the wavelength of X-rays. Because it's easier to
measure the ratio between two X-ray wavelengths than it is to measure the
wavelengths themselves, the wavelengths are usually stated as multiples of
a standard wavelength. The
and the angstrom
star are the units used for this purpose. &A* was defined by J.A. Bearden
in 1965 to provide a unit approximately equal to the angstrom (10-10
meter or 0.1 nanometer). Later measurements have shown that in fact A* is
equal to approximately 1.000 0015 x 10-10 meter or 100.000 15 picometers.
angular mil
[2].
animal unit (AU)
a unit of feed consumption used in U.S. dairying and ranching. One animal
unit is the feed or grazing requirement of a mature cow weighing 1000 pounds
(about 454 kilograms). This is approximately 26 pounds (11.8 kg) of dry forage.
Total feed requirements are often figured by the animal unit month (AUM),
the feed required to sustain one animal unit of livestock for one month (780
pounds or 354 kg).
anker or anchor
a small wine barrel used in Britain and elsewhere in northern Europe. In
England an anker usually held 10 wine (U.S. liquid) gallons (37.85 liters);
the Scottish anker held 20 Scots pints (about 34 liters). The word anker is
of Dutch origin.
a unit of land area in South Asia. In Pakistan, the anna equals 20.17 square
yards or 16.86 square meters. In Nepal, the anna is nearly twice that size:
31.8 square meters, 342 square feet, or 38 square yards.
annual percentage rate (% APR)
a unit used in the U.S. for stating interest rates and rates of return on
investment. By federal regulation, these rates can be stated however a financial
institution wishes, but they must be stated also in % APR so that consumers
can compare rates of different loans and investment opportunities. Mathematically,
the natural rate r of return on money is the "instantaneous" rate,
the rate that allows for compounding of interest continuously. The APR is
the percentage growth rate a of the money over a period of one year,
as if interest were compounded annually. The two rates are related by the
formulas a = er - 1 and r = ln (1 + a),
where er is the natural exponential function and ln is the
natural logarithmic function.
an abbreviation for "apothecary," used with certain units to indicate that
the measurement is in the traditional apothecary system (see below). For units
existing in both the apothecary and troy systems, the apothecaries' units
are the same as the troy units, for example, 1 oz ap = 1 troy ounce.
Apgar score
of the health of a newborn
baby. One minute after birth (and at regular intervals thereafter through
the first moments of life) newborns are rated 0, 1, or 2 on five indicators
of health (respiratory effort, heart rate, skin color, muscle tone, and reflexive
response to smell). Possible scores therefore range from 0 to 10. The unit
is named for its inventor, the American anesthetist Virginia Apgar ().
API degree, API gravity
apostilb (asb)
unit of luminance, equal to the brightness
produced by 1/pi
per square meter or 10-4 .
The name of the unit is pseudo-G it combines the ancient
Greek stilbein, to "glitter" or "shine," with the prefix apo-,
"away from."
apothecary weights
a version of the
system formerly
used by apothecaries (pharmacists). The troy pound, equal to 373.242 grams
or 13.165 72 avoirdupois ounces, is always divided into 12 ounces, each ounce
being equal to 480 . In the apothecary
system, the ounce is divided into 8
grains) each containing 3
(20 grains).
There is a parallel system of liquid volume measure in which the
is divided into 8
(or fluidrams) each containing 3 fluid scruples. The apothecary system continued
in use into the early twentieth century, but it has been replaced everywhere
in pharmacy by the use of metric units. The abbreviation "ap." indicates apothecaries'
units, as in "oz. ap." or "dr. ap."
arcminute (′ or min)
a unit of angular measure, also called the minute of arc, equal to
60 arcseconds and to 1/60 degree. There are 21 600 arcminutes in a circle.
arcsecond (″ or as or sec or s)
a unit of angular measure, also called the second of arc, equal to
1/60 arcminute. One arcsecond is a very small angle indeed: there are 1 296
000 seconds in a circle. The
defines s as the symbol
for the time unit and recommends ″ as the symbol for the arcsecond. The symbol
as has become common in astronomy, where very small angles are stated
in milliarcseconds (mas).
a unit of area equal to 100 square meters. The word is pronounced the same
as "air." Being the area of a square 10 meters on each side, the are is a
little large for measuring areas indoors and a little small for measuring
areas outdoors. As a result, the are is not used as often as its multiple,
(ha). One are is approximately
square feet, 119.5990 square yards, or 0.02471 acre.
arm's-length
in English the term "arm's-length" is used figuratively to mean "a distance
discouraging familiarity or conflict." In many cultures, however, the length
of a human arm is standardized as a unit of distance equal to about 70 centimeters
or 28 . Examples include the Italian ,
the Russian , and the Turkish .
arpent [1]
a traditional unit of distance in French-speaking countries. The arpent
this is about 191.8 feet or 58.47 meters. The unit was
in fact, arpentage is the French word for surveying. In Canada the
arpent has an official definition of 191.835 English feet (58.471 308 meters).
arpent [2]
a traditional unit of area in French North America (Qu&bec and Louisiana),
equal to one square arpent [1]. The arpent of area equals 900 square
, 100 (square) ,
approximately 0.8445
or 0.3419 .
By the official Canadian definition, the arpent of area contains 36 800.667
23 English square feet or about 0.844 827 acre (0.341 889 hectare).
arratel or artel
versions of a traditional A see .
The spelling "arratel" is used in Portugal as an alternate name for the .
arroba (@) (1)
a traditional unit of weight in Spain and Portugal, equal to 1/4 .
However, the Spanish and Portuguese quintals are of different sizes. In Spain,
the arroba equals 25.36 pounds (11.50 kilograms); arrobas of very similar
sizes were established in the Spanish speaking countries of Latin America.
In Portugal and Brazil, the arroba traditionally equals 32.38 pounds (14.69
kilograms, but in recent years this has been "metrized" to be exactly 15 kilograms).
The arroba has also been used as a metric unit equal to exactly 15 kilograms.
The name of the unit comes from ar rub', Arabic for "the quarter."
The @ sign has been used in Spanish as a symbol for the arroba since the sixteenth
century at least.
arroba (@) (2)
a tradiational unit of liquid volume in Spain and Latin America. This unit was intended to represent the volume of liquid weighing one arroba, so it varied with the l for example, an arroba of oil was 12.563 liters (2.972 U.S. gallons), while an arroba of wine was 16.133 liters (3.817 U.S. gallons).
a traditional Russian unit of distance. Peter the Great standardized the
arshin at exactly 28 English , or 71.12
centimeters, early in the 1700s. The arshin was also used in several other
countries adjacent to Russia. The arshin is also used as a unit of area equal
this would be equal to 5.4445 square feet or 0.5058
square meter.
a historic unit of volume, used for both liquid and dry measurement throughout
the Middle East. In ancient times the artaba varied in size between about
35 and 55 liters. In recent centuries the Arab artaba, equal to about 66 liters,
was a common unit in both Arab and non-Arab parts of the area.
a symbol used in astronomy for the arcsecond (see above).
as, ass, or aas
a traditional unit of mass for gold and silver, used in most of northern
Europe but not in England. The unit varied in size from about 48 to 58 milligrams
(0.75 to 0.90 English ).
ASA number
for many years, the initials of the American Standards Association appeared
on film packages in the United States as a measure of the speed of the photographic
emulsion (the stuff on the film that "develops" to form the picture). The
scale is arbitrary, but the important thing to know is that the speed at which
the image registers on the film is proportional to the ASA number. Thus ASA
400 film registers an image twice as fast as ASA 200 film and four times as
fast as ASA 100 film. The ASA number is now combined with the European DIN
rating as a composite ISO rating. For example, ASA 400 film is now marked
ISO 400/27°, because 27 is the DIN rating corresponding to ASA 400.
assay ton (AT)
a specialized unit of mass used by minerologists in assaying (testing) ores
for the presence of gold, silver, platinum, uranium, or other valuable metals.
One assay ton equals 29.1667 grams: just a little over an an ounce! The assay
ton is actually a sample size. Since there are 87500/3 = 29166.7 troy ounces
in a short ton (2000 lb), the number of milligrams of a precious
metal in a sample of one assay ton is numerically equal to the number of troy
ounces of that metal in one ton of raw ore. In Britain, the assay ton
is based on the long ton and thus equals 98/3 = 32.6667 grams.
astronomical unit (ua or au or AU)
a unit of distance used by astronomers to measure distances in the Solar
System. One astronomical unit equals the "average" distance from the center
of the Earth to the center of the Sun (mathematically, it is the length of
the semimajor axis of the Earth's elliptical orbit, which is the ordinary
average of the Earth's minimum and maximum distances from the Sun). The currently
accepted value, adopted in 1996, is 149 597 870 691 meters (1.495 978 706
91 x 108 kilometers or about 92 955 807 ),
with an uncertainty of about 30 meters. The astronomical unit is a convenient
yardstick for measuring the distances between objects in the Solar System.
Astronomers find it particularly convenient to use astronomical units in solving
the equations of planetary motion. Because these equations are the same regardless
of the unit used for distance, the predictions they generate will remain correct
even if future astronomers determine a slightly different length for the distance
between the Earth and Sun. This unit is accepted for use with
units. The official symbol for the unit is ua, but the symbol au
is common in English-speaking countries. Note that AU is also used as the
symbol for the absorbance unit (see above).
atmo-meter (atmo-m)
a unit used in atmospheric physics to compare the "depth" or total volume
of atmospheres, or components of atmospheres. The depth (in atmo-meters) is
equal to the depth (in meters) the atmosphere, or one gas component of the
atmosphere, would have if it formed a uniform layer at standard temperature
(0 °C) and pressure (1 atmosphere). One atmo-meter represents 2.686 99
x 1025 molecules of gas per square meter of planetary surface.
symbol for the .
atmosphere (atm or atmos)
a unit of pressure designed to equal the average pressure of the Earth's
atmosphere at sea level. In other pressure units, one atmosphere equals
(mb), 101.325
(kPa), approximately 29.92
(in Hg), 760.0 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), or 14.6959
per square inch (lbf/in2). This is the standard
atmosphere; it equals 1.03323
(that is, 1.03323 kilograms of force per square centimeter).
a medieval unit of time. The Greek word atomos means something "uncuttable,"
thus indivisible. In medieval times the Latin form atomus was also
used to mean "a twinkling of the eye," the smallest amount of time imaginable.
This was sometimes defined in a precise way equivalent to exactly 1/376 minute
or about 160 milliseconds.
atomic mass unit (u or amu)
the unit of mass used by chemists and physicists for measuring the masses
of atoms and molecules. Early in the nineteenth century, scientists discovered
that each chemical element is composed of atoms, and that each chemical compound
is composed of molecules in which atoms are combined in a fixed way. No one
knew then just how small atoms and molecules really are, but as long as the
relative weights of the different atoms were known, the outcome of chemical
reactions could be predicted. These relative masses were determined by careful
study of various reactions. The general idea was that atoms of hydrogen, known
to be the lightest element, should have a mass of 1 amu, and all the other
atoms should have masses which are multiples of this (then unknown) mass of
the hydrogen atom. For a long time, physicists and chemists disagreed on the
details of this definition. In 1960 they agreed on the definition of the unified
atomic mass unit as 1/12 the mass of the most common atoms of carbon,
known as carbon-12 atoms. (Most elements are mixtures of atoms which have
different masses because they contain different these
varieties are called isotopes.) Careful experiments have measured the size
the currently accepted value (1998) is 1.660 538 782 x 10-27
kilograms. (This number equals 1 divided by Avogadro' see .)
In addition, 1 amu equals approximately 931.494 028 MeV (see ). In biochemistry, the atomic mass unit is called the
atomic number
The atomic number was originally defined (about 1865) simply as an index
describing the position of an element in the periodic table. Not until 1913
was it known that the atomic number is actually a unit of measurement, equal
to the number of electrons surrounding a neutral (uncharged) atom, and also
to the number of protons in the nucleus.
atto- (a-)
a metric prefix denoting 10-18 (one quintillionth). For example,
one electron volt equals 0.1602 attojoule. The root of the prefix is atten,
the word for 18 in Danish and Norwegian.
in astronomy, the synbol for t in medicine, a symbol
for allergy units.
abbreviation for the Latin phrase ab urbe condita, "from the founding
of the city." The Romans counted years from the legendary founding of Rome
by Romulus and Remus, an event placed in 753 BC (or BCE) in our present calendar.
The Christian Church continued to count years AUC for centuries after the
fall of Rome. Our year 2002 is 2755 AUC.
aught (/0)
a unit used by jewelers and craftspeople to measure the size of small beads
(often called seed beads). The measurement scale is inverted: larger numbers
of aughts correspond to smaller beads. Beads of size 11/0, a common size,
average a little less than 2 millimeters in diameter, and other sizes are
more-or-less inversely proportional. The measure may have originated as the
number of beads that could comfortably be strung with
present sizes a string of n beads of size n/0 occupies about
0.8 inch (20 mm). The word aught, meaning zero, is a fairly recent
corruption of the old English word naught, apparently
the phrase a naught, meaning a zero, came to be misspelled as an
an old English wine measure equal to about 40
(roughly 150 liters). The aume is the English version of a German unit, the
[2].
a traditional French unit of distance, varying from region to region but
similar in length to the English .
av or avdp
abbreviations for avoirdupois (see below).
Avogadro's number, Avogadro constant (NA)
a unit of relative quantity equal to the number of atoms or molecules per
of a substance. The currently accepted
value is 6.022 141 79 x 1023 per mole with an uncertainty of 0.000
000 47 x 1023 per mole (about 80 parts per billion). The atomic
mass unit (see above), in grams, is equal to one divided by this number. The
unit is named for the Italian chemist and physicist Amedeo Avogadro ().
Avogadro was the first to conclude from Dalton's atomic theory that equal
volumes of gases (at the same temperature and pressure) must contain an equal
number of molecules.
avoirdupois weights
the common traditional system of weights in all the English-speaking countries.
Until the introduction of the metric system, almost all weights were stated
in avoirdupois units, with only precious metals being measured by
and pharmaceuticals by apothecary weights (see above). The name
of the system comes from the Old French phrase avoir du pois or aveir
de pois, "goods of weight," indicating simply that the goods were being
sold by weight rather than by volume or by the piece. The system is based
on the avoirdupois
[1] of 7000
. The pound is divided into 16
[1], each divided further into 16
[1]. The avoirdupois system was introduced in England around 1300,
replacing an older commercial system based on a "mercantile pound" (libra
mercatoria) of 7200 grains divided into exactly 15 troy ounces [2].
Scholars believe the avoirdupois pound was invented by wool merchants and
modeled on a pound of 16 ounces used in Florence, Italy, which was an important
buyer of English wool at the time. The avoirdupois weights quickly became
the standard weights of trade and commerce. They continue to be used for most
items of retail trade in the United States, and they remain in some use in
Britain, Canada, and other areas of British heritage despite the introduction
of metric units there.
abbreviation for American Wire Gauge. See
[3] and the .
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(rowlett@email.unc.edu) with comments and
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All material in this folder is copyright
2008 by Russ
Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Permission is granted for personal use and for use by individual
teachers in conducting their own classes. All other rights reserved.
You are welcome to make links to this page, but please do not copy
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March 21, 2001; revised December 3, 2008.}