this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 days ago

I do like to sleep in

[–] [email protected] 93 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix

In case you wondered where they came in the list like I immediately did:

  • quetta Q 10^30
  • ronna R 10^27
  • yotta Y 10^24
  • zetta Z 10^21
  • exa E 10^18
  • peta P 10^15
  • tera T 10^12
  • giga G 10^9
  • mega M 10^6
  • kilo k 10^3
  • hecto h 10^2
  • deca da 10^1
  • ——
  • deci d 10^−1
  • centi c 10^−2
  • milli m 10^−3
  • micro μ 10^−6
  • nano n 10^−9
  • pico p 10^−12
  • femto f 10^p−15
  • atto a 10^−18
  • zepto z 10^−21
  • yocto y 10^−24
  • ronto r 10^−27
  • quecto q 10^−30
[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I noticed recently that a Linux command mentioned in its manpage that it supported Q as a bit prefix and I had to stop to ponder the utility in encoding a million-billion Terabytes.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 days ago (2 children)

But did they mean Quettabytes or Quebibytes? Because the difference is only around 250 000 times the size of the Internet.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

Or, in other words, around 244 kibiInternets.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Bah, that's just a rounding error!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

I'm going to start giving my height in quectometres

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Googol 10^100.

(Not sure if that's official prefix.)

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 days ago

As far as I remember it isn't, it's just a named specific large number, like Avogadro's number or Graham's number.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You can combine these to have perfectly valid ways of saying 1.

I'll have ronnaronto cheeseburger.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Great, now I can talk about lightyears using Fermi length as unit

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

I'm switching my digital calipers to quetta-planck lengths.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Damn, I was really holding out for Hella for 10^27

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago

If 10^27^ would be Hella, would 10^-27^ then be Hello? 🙃

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

The campaign hasn't made any progress since 2011 when Wolfram Alpha added support for it, a year after Google did. Google's calculator still does support it, though, so you can write queries like like "1Zbit/s * 1 year in hellabytes" (3.9 hellabytes), or "mass of the earth in hellagrams" (5.9 hellagrams).

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Alas, the prefix H was already in use according to the page you linked. Disappointing.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

I don't think it's used as a prefix but as a unit symbol. Point still stands though, unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Maybe there can be an exception when referring to Californium

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

"What the hell are you kids doing down there in the basement, that you need these more specific units?"
"Um... nothing, sir. Everything is quite all right, quite all right."
"Hrumph! Very well then, I shall be in my study. And do try to keep the bloody racket down, for chrissakes!"
"Yes sir, thank you sir, goodnight sir... Whew... that was a close one!"

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Actually, it's not ronnabyte, it's ribibyte ...

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago

You gotta lick a frog or two to understand kibimibi.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fun fact: they made these because Cookie Clicker needed them

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 days ago

Cookie Clicker doesn't use SI prefixes. It just uses numbers (eg million, billion, octodecillion, etc...), which already extend into basically infinity I believe.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

...necktie? Nickel?

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Glory to the metric system 🫡🇫🇷

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago

Bah, Imperial Units all the way. How else would I know how many stone I weigh, or how many King's Pubes I am tall? I don't want to convert from kilometers (whatever those are!) to gentlemans-strides or shilling miles to get where I'm going.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 days ago

Ronna and ronto: disgusting

Quetta and quecto: pleasing

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Now we just need the cunni - 10⁶⁹

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

10^-30^ quesito

Ohhh, síiii

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

10^32... Chilito

Yes! Yes baby yes!

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 days ago

1/R = r

lovely

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

My favorite prefix will always be exa. Mostly because of a sci-fi book where one character called himself Exa and there were a few subtle puns with that name (like getting obliterated with a 10^18 W laser)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not to be confused with

SWOL

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

Lets define here and now Hella (H) as 10^666. It's not SI official, but not "false".

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Whoa, that's such big news, i just shifted a rontometer in my seat.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Imagine confusing ronto and ronna and accidentally shifting a ronnameter instead :P

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Fun fact: in metric you don’t get as much shrinkage

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

Yes 2025 will be great year.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago
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