Company Writer's Guide

Symbols for Units in General Use (Cont’d)

Unit

Symbol

Notes

 

 

 

bel

B

 

 

 

 

becquerel

Bq

SI unit of activity of a radionuclide.

 

 

 

billion electronvolts

GeV

The name gigaelectronvolt is preferred for this

 

 

unit.

 

 

 

bit

b

In information theory, the bit is a unit of

 

 

information content equal to the information

 

 

content of a message the a priori probability of

 

 

which is one half.

 

 

In computer science, the bit is a unit of storage

 

 

capacity. The capacity, in bits, of a storage

 

 

device is the logarithm to the base two of the

 

 

number of possible states of the device.

 

 

 

bit per second

b/s

 

 

 

 

British thermal unit

Btu

 

 

 

 

calorie

calIT

1 calIT = 4.1868 J (deprecated, see ANSI Z210.1-

(International Table calorie)

 

1976)

 

 

 

calorie

cal

1 cal = 4.1840 J (deprecated,

(thermochemical calorie)

 

see ANSI Z210.1-1976)

 

 

 

candela

cd

SI unit of luminous intensity.

 

 

 

candela per square inch

cd/in2

Use of the SI unit, cd/m2, is preferred.

 

 

 

candela per square meter

cd/m2

SI unit of luminance. The name nit is sometimes

 

 

used for this unit.

 

 

 

candle

cd

The unit of luminous intensity has been given

 

 

the name candela; use of the name candle for this

 

 

unit is deprecated.

 

 

 

centi

c

SI prefix for 10-2.

 

 

 

centimeter

cm

 

 

 

 

[For Illustration Only]

B-5