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Student Wants Science To Name 'Hella' Big Number
thodelu writes "Austin Sendek, a 20-year-old UC Davis student, is trying to get scientists from Boise to Beijing to use the term 'hella' to denote the unimaginably huge, seldom-cited quantity of 10 to the 27th power. From the article: 'It started as a joke, but Sendek's Facebook petition: to the Consultative Committee on Units, a subdivision of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures, has drawn more than 60,000 supporters. Its chances for formal adoption by the global weights-and-measures community are hella dim, but Google was so taken with Sendek's modest proposal that it incorporated "hella" in its online calculator.'"
"Hella" is another contraction of the same phrase that is peculiar to slang in northern California.
There's already a system.
See http://www.bipm.org/en/CGPM/db/19/4/ "The names zepto and zetta are derived from septo suggesting the number seven (the seventh power of 10^3) and the letter "z" is substituted for the letter "s" to avoid the duplicate use of the letter "s" as a symbol. The names yocto and yotta are derived from octo, suggesting the number eight (the eight power of 10^3); the letter "y" is added to avoid the use of the letter "o" as a symbol because it may be confused with the number zero."
Also, the order is Z, Y, so the next is X. Hence the next prefix is likely to be xona
http://www.mindspring.com/~jimvb/unitsystem.htm
Sigh, another hip young developer that thinks he knows it all but yet again shows his ignorance on the Internet. You cannot use helluva fool, Mr. T invented that phrase and it is his trademark and copyright! Hires Proof!
1980's pop culture references you young hip developers might never get, but Mr. T takes on Megatrong.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Also ...
I can sneeze without a Facebook account and get 60k people involved. When you're using a big popularity contest where you being friends with someone makes them more popular than anyone who can be your friend is going to do it.
There should be a ban against being a live and using facebook at the same time.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
10^27 already has a name, it's called Octillion. Dag nabit! I like my numbering system the way it is! No get off my lawn!
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potrzebie#Unit_System
http://webofstories.com/play/17067
Don Knuth wrote this system up, won an award for it, and got it published in MAD Magazine - all by the age of nineteen. Check and mate, Sendek!
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
No, that is reserved for 10^30.