Science Friday: Snowboarders Unite! UC Davis student seeks to make 'Hella Big' an official scientific prefix

Hella News Roundup

March 3rd, 2010 @ 1:53 pm by andy

Physics student Austin Sendek’s campaign to get “hella” designated as an official SI prefix (for 10 to the power 27) might be the media hit of the year so far. On Monday, the Sacramento Bee ran a story, followed by a nice piece from CBS-13’s Steve Large. Yesterday other local TV stations Fox 40 and News 10 followed up with their versions of the story, affiliates nationwide have picked up those local pieces and the story has been covered by news sites in the UK as well. The Guardian provides a handy Q&A for Brits to decode American English (”What’s a sophomore again?”).

Discover, New Scientist and Popular Science have also been in on the action.

Currently, the biggest number in the International System of Units is the ‘yotta,” which is 10 to the power 24 or 1 followed by 24 zeroes. Sendek points out that the new unit could be used, say, to express the power output of the Sun as 0.3 hellawatts instead of 300 yottawatts.

Professor Ian Mills of the University of Reading told the British Daily Telegraph that he would raise the issue at the next meeting of the Consultative Committee on Units, which advises the international body that rules on such matters. Mills doubted though that it would succeed, as the committee had more pressing matters to deal with, such as working out the exact weight of a kilogram.

[...]