science

List of scientific units named after people

List of scientific units named after people is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of scientific units named after people rather than just read about it. In short: This is a list of scientific units named after people. For other lists of eponyms (names derived from people) see eponym.

Key takeaways

List of scientific units named after people belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of scientific units named after people to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of scientific units named after people from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This is a list of scientific units named after people. For other lists of eponyms (names derived from people) see eponym. By convention, the name of the unit is properly written starting with a lowercase letter (except where any word would be capitalized), but the first letter of its symbol is a capital letter if it is derived from a proper name.

SI units ampere (A), electric current – André-Marie Ampère becquerel (Bq), radioactivity – Henri Becquerel degree Celsius (°C), temperature – Anders Celsius coulomb (C), electric charge – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb farad (F), capacitance – Michael Faraday gray (Gy), absorbed dose of radiation – Louis Harold Gray henry (H), inductance – Joseph Henry hertz (Hz), frequency – Heinrich Rudolf Hertz joule (J), energy, work, heat – James Prescott Joule kelvin (K), thermodynamic temperature – Lord Kelvin newton (N), force – Isaac Newton ohm (Ω), electrical resistance – Georg Ohm pascal (Pa), pressure – Blaise Pascal siemens (S), electrical conductance – Werner von Siemens sievert (Sv), radiation dose equivalent – Rolf Sievert tesla (T), magnetic flux density – Nikola Tesla volt (V), electric potential, electromotive force – Alessandro Volta watt (W), power, radiant flux – James Watt weber (Wb), magnetic flux – Wilhelm Eduard Weber

CGS units biot (Bi), electric current – Jean-Baptiste Biot buckingham (B), electric quadrupole moment – A. David Buckingham debye (D), electric dipole moment – Peter Debye eotvos (E), gravitational gradient – Loránd Eötvös galileo (Gal), acceleration – Galileo Galilei gauss (G or Gs), magnetic flux density – Carl Friedrich Gauss gilbert (Gb), magnetomotive force – William Gilbert goeppert-mayer (GM), two-photon absorption cross section – Maria Goeppert Mayer kayser (kayser), wavenumber – Heinrich Kayser maxwell (Mx), magnetic flux – James Clerk Maxwell oersted (Oe), magnetic field strength – Hans Christian Ørsted poise (P), dynamic viscosity – Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille Rayl or Rayleigh (Rayl), acoustic impedance – John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh rayleigh (R), photon flux – Robert Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh stokes (S or St), kinematic viscosity – George Gabriel Stokes

No longer in use franklin (Fr), electric charge – Benjamin Franklin clausius (Cl), entropy – Rudolf Clausius

Others angstrom (Å), distance – Anders Jonas Ångström baud (Bd), symbol rate – Émile Baudot Bark scale, psychoacoustical scale – Heinrich Barkhausen brewster (B), stress optic coefficient – David Brewster centimorgan (cM), recombination frequency – Thomas Hunt Morgan curie (Ci), radioactivity – Marie and Pierre Curie dalton (Da), atomic mass – John Dalton darcy (D), permeability, – Henry Darcy decibel (dB) dimensionless proportions and ratios, e.g. relative power levels – Alexander Graham Bell degree Fahrenheit (°F), temperature – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit degree Rankine (°R), temperature – William John Macquorn Rankine Dobson unit (DU), atmospheric ozone – Gordon Dobson erlang (E), dimensionless volume of telecommunications traffic – Agner Krarup Erlang fermi (fm), distance – Enrico Fermi hartley (Hart), information – Ralph Hartley hartree (Ha), energy – Douglas Hartree Hounsfield scale, radiodensity – Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield jansky (Jy), electromagnetic flux – Karl Jansky langley (ly), solar radiation – Samuel Pierpont Langley langmuir (L), gas exposure dose – Irving Langmuir neper (Np), relative power level – John Napier degree Öchsle (°Oe), density – Ferdinand Öchsle Rockwell scale (HR), indentation hardness – Stanley Rockwell röntgen (R), dosage of X-rays or gamma radiation – Wilhelm Röntgen Richter magnitude, earthquake power – Charles Francis Richter Scoville units, capsaicin content of chili peppers – Wilbur Scoville shannon (Sh), information – Claude Shannon siegbahn (xu), distance – Manne Siegbahn svedberg (S or Sv), sedimentation rate – Theodor Svedberg sverdrup (Sv), volume transport rate – Harald Sverdrup torr (Torr), pressure – Evangelista Torricelli troland (Td), luminance (human eye) – Leonard Troland

Natural unit systems Planck units – Max Planck Stoney units – George Stoney

No longer in use Mercalli intensity scale, earthquake effects – Giuseppe Mercalli degree Réaumur (°R), temperature – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur degree Delisle (°D), temperature – Joseph-Nicolas Delisle degree Newton (°N), temperature – Isaac Newton degree Rømer (°Rø), temperature – Ole Rømer degree Baumé (°Bé), density – Antoine Baumé einstein (E), photochemistry – Albert Einstein poncelet (p), power – Jean-Victor Poncelet faraday (Fd), electrical charge – Michael Faraday

See also List of eponyms Lists of etymologies List of obsolete units of measurement List of unusual units of measurement List of humorous units of measurement List of scientists whose names are used as SI units List of scientists whose names are used as non SI units

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of scientific units named after people

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of scientific units named after people claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of scientific units named after people before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of scientific units named after people ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of scientific units named after people

In research: List of scientific units named after people appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of scientific units named after people in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of scientific units named after people is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lists of eponyms, Lists of things named after scientists, Lists of units of measurement, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of scientific units named after people outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “List of scientific units named after people” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study List of scientific units named after people in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what List of scientific units named after people means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain List of scientific units named after people out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is List of scientific units named after people in simple terms?

This is a list of scientific units named after people. For other lists of eponyms (names derived from people) see eponym.

Why does List of scientific units named after people matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of scientific units named after people?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of scientific units named after people.