~The Catch-All Drawer~

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Units of Measurement
I found a perfectly wonderful dictionary online that includes the definitions of words used for measurement. It's sprinkled with unusual words and interesting etymologies, like:

The baud is named for the French telegraph engineer J. M. E. Baudot (1845-1903), the inventor of the first teleprinter.


salmanazar: a large wine bottle holding about 9 liters


noy: a unit of perceived noisiness introduced by the American acoustics engineer K. D. Kryter in 1959. An observer uses the unit to described the noise levels he or she experiences as multiples of a standard level. The standard level, one noy, is defined to be the noisiness of a random noise signal within the frequency band from 910 to 1090 hertz at a sound pressure level of 40 decibels. As you have already guessed, the unit's name is chosen so that its plural is pronounced "noise." A jet aircraft takeoff is rated at about 110 noys.

Tossed in by: PDQ
. . . Thursday, July 29, 2004

1 Comments:

I actually knew that thing about J. Baudot at one time, but had forgotten. But I will never forget his famous movie star sister Bridget.
Blogger R.G.B., at 4:49 PM  

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Units of Measurement