[BC] Google, today Hertz

[Jerry Mathis]

On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 12:48 PM, H.A. Stanton <k5gvr1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>Cps and Megacycles shall stay with me to the end!
>  Harold

Everyone is certainly free to use whatever technically descriptive designation they prefer to refer to electrical parameters, and if you grew up referring to frequency in cps, far be it from me to tell you to do otherwise. But I'm not sure I understand the objections to the modern changeover of cps to Hertz. It was done, if I understand correctly, simply as an honor to a past person who made significant contributions to the science. And Mr. Hertz is not the only person to be so honored; in fact, most of our measurement parameters are now named after people who originally defined the science. For example:

Volts, named for Alessandro Volta, an Italian who, among other things, is credited with creating the first "voltaic pile", known today as a "battery".

Amperes, also abbreviated to Amps. Named for Andre-Marie Ampere, a Frenchman who is credited for discovering the link between electricity and magnetism, which led to--what else?--the discovery of electromagnetism.

Watts, named for James Watt, a mechanical Engineer who developed the concept of horsepower, which naturally developed into measurement of power, both mechanical and electrical.

Ohms, named after Georg Ohm, a German physicist who conducted experiments with Volta's electric pile, and discovered that there were direct relationships between the voltages applied to a conductor and the amount of current that flowed in said conductor. His work resulted in what is undoubtedly the most-often-referred-to Law in electricity: Ohm's Law.

There are MANY others, of course, but I did this short list just to illustrate that it should be no big deal if we re-name one of the parameters of electricity after an individual.

--
Jerry Mathis