Re: micro, pico, Giga

[mcnaught@lanl.gov (Mike McNaughton)]

Whoops, I used the word "From" at the beginning of a sentence and the rest
of the message was deleted.  (This is a RadSafe feature, be warned.)  My
apologies.

A week ago I asked how people pronounced "micro", "pico", and "Giga".  I
received 15 responses, and the results were almost unanimous (with one or
two fence sitters) as follows.

micro = mike-ro
pico = peek-o
Giga with a hard G as in Gas, not Jigger.

I was born and educated in Africa, and worked in England, Hong Kong and
Malaysia.  I also have friends and colleagues from many other countries.
Based on my experience, I think the international standard pronunciations
of pico and Giga are the same as above, but in many countries, "micro" is
pronounced "mick-ro" (as in the name "Mick", not "Mike").  So when we have
a United-Nations navy, we might decide to use "micro-micro curie".

Thanks to all who responded, Mike (my mother calls me Micky)

"Shlala gashle" (Zulu greeting, meaning "Stay safe")
mike (mcnaught@LANL.GOV)