Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath

November 18, 2022 10:32 AM

For the first time since 1991, the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) voted to introduce four new prefixes to the International System of Units (SI) with immediate effect.

Say hello to ronna and quetta, ronto and quecto.
"The prefixes ronna and quetta represent 10^27 and 10^30, and ronto and quecto signify 10^−27 and 10^−30. Earth weighs around one ronnagram, and an electron’s mass is about one quectogram."

posted by thatwhichfalls (23 comments total)

Everyone (from Northern California) knows that 10 e.27 is supposed to be “ Hella” this has been a multi decade quest
posted by CostcoCultist at 10:38 AM on November 18, 2022 [19 favorites]

I could/couldn't give one quetta/quecto-fuck!

Discuss, pedants!
posted by lalochezia at 10:38 AM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Apologies if this is a derail but the same conference just suspended leap seconds until 2035.
posted by Nelson at 10:52 AM on November 18, 2022 [9 favorites]

Clearly they decided it was time for more extreme measures.
posted by Songdog at 10:57 AM on November 18, 2022 [24 favorites]

Oh my god, I have a sister named Ronna.

I can't wait to tell her that the mass of the Earth is approximately one ronnagram.
posted by rlk at 10:57 AM on November 18, 2022 [33 favorites]

Total missed opportunity for 'bronto'. Darn.
posted by JoeZydeco at 11:01 AM on November 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

I like the implied suggestion that while the intention behind these standards wasn't to be a killjoy about people trying to make "hellabyte" a thing, it was a definite side benefit.
posted by biogeo at 11:09 AM on November 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

Discuss, pedants!

Discus pedants.
posted by The Bellman at 11:13 AM on November 18, 2022 [4 favorites]

It's about bloody time, that's for certain.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:57 AM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Total missed opportunity for 'bronto'.

ITYM 'apato'
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:08 PM on November 18, 2022 [5 favorites]

Help me, Ronna.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:18 PM on November 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

Pedants?! As the winner of the Junior Scripture Prize (1965), I'll point out that a bath and an ephah are both 1 deci-homer but that ephah is a dry measure [think bushel] while bath is for wet. At 22 litres = shy of 6 US gallons, that's a drought economy bathtub but generous if olive oil / asses milk etc.
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:32 PM on November 18, 2022 [7 favorites]

This is so cool. I love nerd shit.
posted by slogger at 12:43 PM on November 18, 2022

So, if I mistype two letters I would order ten to the sixtieth more ice cream than what I wanted?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:48 PM on November 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

They certainly missed an opportunity by spurning hella/hello — but they spared us seeing sentences like 'six more orders of magnitude and, hello charm quark!' in physics papers.

22.4 L is the molar volume of a gas at STP, BobTheScientist; calling that a 'bath' might work out pretty well.
posted by jamjam at 1:07 PM on November 18, 2022

jamjam: molar volume of a gas at STP. That would almost be a yotta molecules, so.

d_w_sneeches: order ten to the sixtieth more ice cream than what I wanted
My well-traveled late-lamented boss boasted that he could order two fried eggs wherever he washed up. Until, in deepest Anatolia he was presented with a h u g e omelette on a tray-sized platter and figured he must have insisted on 2 dozen eggs against the incredulity of the server.
posted by BobTheScientist at 2:02 PM on November 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

Was this a continuation of the recent conference to define all the remaining constants that were arbitrary (especially the kilogram) in terms of universal quantities?
posted by indianbadger1 at 2:09 PM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

So is quettabyte pronounced "KEHttabyte" or "KAYttabyte" or "KEEttabyte" or "KWEHttabyte" or "KWEEttabyte? They gotta nail this down before we have another 'gif' situation.
posted by straight at 2:12 PM on November 18, 2022 [5 favorites]

I've got bad news for you: the 'gif' situation was nailed down for years, until a few internet punks suddenly decided they knew better than the creator of the format - who had even provided a specific reason for pronouncing it a certain way.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:48 PM on November 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

Just in time. Calling Elon a yottafuck just doesn't cut it.
posted by zompist at 2:48 PM on November 18, 2022 [4 favorites]

Yeah. A good waste of the word 'fuck.'
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 2:50 PM on November 18, 2022

Seems a little too soon for “ronna” while the Rona is still tormenting us…
posted by Tandem Affinity at 9:31 PM on November 18, 2022

It strikes me that referring to ronto looks like Toronto, whereas referring to ronna looks like Toronna, which is how Toronto is actually pronounced by Torontonians.

(I guess you could also make the case that Quecto looks like how DALL·E 2 might spell Quebec.)
posted by xigxag at 11:38 AM on November 19, 2022 [1 favorite]