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Wierd Units
By Dan M, Section Reviews Posted on Thu Feb 03, 2005 at 08:28:51 PM MST
What are these??

I have a units conversion spreadsheet that contains several units with the prefix "AB".
abamperes
abfarads
abhenries
abohms
abvolts
....etc.
The conversion values are such that it can't represent a constant (like kilo or milli).
For example 1 abvolt = 10^(-8) volts.
But 1 abcoulomb = 10 coulombs?!?!?!?
Did Allen Bradley come up with there own units to protect trade secrets?
-Dan M

Wierd Units | 13 comments (13 topical)

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by Flux on Thu Feb 03, 2005 at 01:46:30 PM MST

These seem to be the absolute cgs units.

The absolute cgs unit of emf is 10^(-8) volts.

The absolute amp is 10A, which ties up with the Ab coulomb. I dont' know how the Henries and Ohms fit in as we used the International standard units that were defined from the resistance of a column of Mercury etc.

Hope this helps.

Flux

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by alcul8r on Thu Feb 03, 2005 at 01:51:04 PM MST

This definately belongs under rants.
According to

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci551470,00.html

these are metric redifinitions of our units. Only it called them cgs, or centimeter gram second instead of metric.

Really weird, I had not known there was any move afoot to redefine. What good is 10 to the -8 volts anyway, unless you are making intracellular measurements or something like that.
alcul8r KansasWind.com

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by wooferhound on Thu Feb 03, 2005 at 06:51:39 PM MST

What about these weird watt measurements
yoctowatt
zeptowatt
yottawatt
and did you know that the human brain uses about 40 watts when under a load

all of this information is on this page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(power)

)}=- W o o f -={(

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by wooferhound on Thu Feb 03, 2005 at 06:53:43 PM MST

Looks like you'll have to Copy and Paste that link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(power)

)}=- W o o f -={(

[ Parent ]

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by kww on Thu Feb 03, 2005 at 08:08:46 PM MST

"and did you know that the human brain uses about 40 watts when under a load"

Sounds rather dim. :-)

[ Parent ]

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by JW on Fri Feb 04, 2005 at 12:24:08 AM MST

the ab-prefixes must have somthing to do with the spreadsheet. all the values are correct, henrys, volts, amps, etc.

JW

[ Parent ]

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by dhagerty on Fri Feb 04, 2005 at 06:29:09 AM MST

So if I carried a carbon pile in my pocket, would it be a stress reducer? :-)
(naw, I didn't think so)

[ Parent ]

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by Dan M on Fri Feb 04, 2005 at 06:53:50 AM MST

"Sounds rather dim. :-)"

Not if you're using compact florescents!

[ Parent ]

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by finnsawyer on Fri Feb 04, 2005 at 09:00:52 AM MST

Define "load'. Sexual fantasies or deep thought? Anyway, if you want to lose weight use your brain?
GeoM
[ Parent ]

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#10)
by Dan M on Fri Feb 04, 2005 at 11:29:47 AM MST

Looking at the high order prefixes it gets me wondering.

2^10 is close to 10^3, but isn't the same.

Since in computer-speak, a kilobyte is not 1000 bytes, but rather 1024 bytes,

and a megabyte is not 1000k but rather 1024k,

and so on.

This makes a terrabyte very close to 1.1 trillion bytes, or a discrepancy of 10%.

So in a few (probably very few) years when hard drives are expressed in terrabytes, will a terrabyte be 2^40 bytes or 10^12 bytes?

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#11)
by newguy on Fri Feb 04, 2005 at 03:40:53 PM MST

1-farad capacitor can store one coulomb (coo-lomb) of charge at 1 volt. A coulomb is 6.25e18 (6.25 * 10^18, or 6.25 billion billion) electrons

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#12)
by JW on Fri Feb 04, 2005 at 08:32:00 PM MST

Look, DUDES'

i realy enjoy this site for what it is, practical..

Agreed.... 6,280,000,000,000,000,000 is ALOT of electrons...

ok, so how many (cuu-loomeeb)'s is in a joule of 'M'-ergy, :) likewise a capacitor at say, 1 FARAD., can store "so-many" electrons, 'if you will'[ whatever you were babbling back there, as far as numbers go]. Smiles again, and trys to convinice you, he is still kidding.

Maybe this will help-

1- FARAD = 1 F ...a 1 farad CAPACITOR is connected to a 1-volt supply will store- 6,280,000,000,000,000,000 (6.28 x 10 to the 18teenth'power) ELECTRONS!. So, does the [^symbol] mean 10^18 = ten to the eithight power? or What?

And for the guy with the carbon-pile in his pocket, You'd be well advised to never run anymore than 12volts, at [ever more than] 2.0 amp's, in to that thing, while its in your pocket. ?

JW

[ Parent ]

Re: Wierd Units (3.00 / 0) (#13)
by JW on Sat Feb 05, 2005 at 04:55:38 PM MST

Well,

since this thread on weird units, I have done some additional researsh on the [^ symbol], it appears this is the 'upper case' greek letter for LAMBDA. tHE 'lower case letter' would be something that looks like a 2... So, how are us, un-physists suposed to equate this, "as" ^ = to the such and such power??? anyone?

Ya, we're pretty-much practical here.. ;0

JW

[ Parent ]

Wierd Units | 13 comments (13 topical)

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