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.'"

Comments

Nothing says math revolution

[notommy]

like a page in facebook.

Re:Nothing says math revolution

[BitZtream]

Also ...

has drawn more than 60,000 supporters

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.

Cartman

[Pojut]

"You guys are hella stupid...you guys are hella lame."

Re:Cartman

[DeafDumbBlind]

Damn it Cartman, stop saying Hella.

Good Luck...

[ringmaster1982]

.. I lost my bid to the EU to adopt Metric F*ck Ton. =(

Who is this guy?

[Anonymous Coward]

What makes him qualified to name anything? Does he even own any land?

Not going to happen

[xaxa]

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

Re:Not going to happen

[RevWaldo]

New petition! Replace zepto- with zeppo-. To be followed of course by:

10^-24: chico-
10^-27: harpo-
10^-30: groucho-


.

Guy walks into a store

[somaTh]

A guy walks into a store. "I'd like a 1 Hellahertz computer"
Clerk promptly smacks him with a laptop.
"Thanks!"

This is an extrordinarily bad idea...

[Chrisq]

The corresponding prefix for 10^-27 would logically be hello. Just imagine trying to take a lecture serously when the lecturer talks about "hello Henrys"

Re:Why?

[IndustrialComplex]

Plus, it breaks the convention of naming things after the person who discovered them.

Yeah, Mr. Liter, Dr. Meter, and Reginald the Second are going to be really steamed if this is adopted.

It's called Octillion

[Nonillion]

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!