• Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    Weird, I’ve never used anything other than unit*10^n on physics. it’s just simpler to operate. 1e3m is 1km, 1e6g a megagram. When working on science, I much prefer the scientific notation.

    • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      10 months ago

      It looks a bit less cluttered, compare e.g. “40.0 Mm” “40.0 x 10⁶ m” or “4.00 x 10⁷ m”. Plus I think that he took into account that he wasn’t lecturing future physicists but future chemists - in Chemistry you rely on those prefixes all the time, and for most stuff you won’t be changing the order of magnitude too much. (Major exception, pK-whatever)

    • rbhfd@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      10 months ago

      Megaparsec, kilojoules, kilo electron volt,… are all very common.

      Then on the other hand, giga solar masses is never used.