List of scientific units named after people

This is a list of scientific units named after people. For other lists of eponyms (names derived from people) see eponym. By convention, the name of the unit is properly written starting with a lowercase letter (except where any word would be capitalized), but the first letter of its symbol is a capital letter if it is derived from a proper name.

SI units

• ampere (A), electric current – André-Marie Ampère
• becquerel (Bq), radioactivity – Henri Becquerel
• degree Celsius (°C), temperature – Anders Celsius
• coulomb (C), electric charge – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
• farad (F), capacitance – Michael Faraday
• gray (Gy), absorbed dose of radiation – Louis Harold Gray
• henry (H), inductance – Joseph Henry
• hertz (Hz), frequency – Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
• joule (J), energy, work, heat – James Prescott Joule
• kelvin (K), thermodynamic temperature – Lord Kelvin
• newton (N), force – Isaac Newton
• ohm (Ω), electrical resistance – Georg Ohm
• pascal (Pa), pressure – Blaise Pascal
• siemens (S), electrical conductance – Werner von Siemens
• sievert (Sv), radiation dose equivalent – Rolf Sievert
• tesla (T), magnetic flux density – Nikola Tesla
• volt (V), electric potential, electromotive force – Alessandro Volta
• watt (W), power, radiant flux – James Watt
• weber (Wb), magnetic flux – Wilhelm Eduard Weber

CGS units

• biot (Bi), electric current – Jean-Baptiste Biot
• buckingham (B), electric quadrupole moment – A. David Buckingham
• debye (D), electric dipole moment – Peter Debye
• eotvos (E), gravitational gradient – Loránd Eötvös
• galileo (Gal), acceleration – Galileo Galilei
• gauss (G or Gs), magnetic flux density – Carl Friedrich Gauss
• gilbert (Gb), magnetomotive force – William Gilbert
• goeppert-mayer (GM), two-photon absorption cross section – Maria Goeppert Mayer
• kayser (kayser), wavenumber – Heinrich Kayser
• maxwell (Mx), magnetic flux – James Clerk Maxwell
• oersted (Oe), magnetic field strength – Hans Christian Ørsted
• poise (P), dynamic viscosity – Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille
• Rayl or Rayleigh (Rayl), acoustic impedance – John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh
• rayleigh (R), photon flux – Robert Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh
• stokes (S or St), kinematic viscosity – George Gabriel Stokes

No longer in use

• franklin (Fr), electric charge – Benjamin Franklin
• clausius (Cl), entropy – Rudolf Clausius

Others

• angstrom (Å), distance – Anders Jonas Ångström
• baud (Bd), symbol rate – Émile Baudot
• Bark scale, psychoacoustical scale – Heinrich Barkhausen
• brewster (B), stress optic coefficient – David Brewster
• centimorgan (cM), recombination frequency – Thomas Hunt Morgan
• curie (Ci), radioactivity – Marie and Pierre Curie
• dalton (Da), atomic mass – John Dalton
• darcy (D), permeability, – Henry Darcy
• decibel (dB) dimensionless proportions and ratios, e.g. relative power levels – Alexander Graham Bell
• degree Fahrenheit (°F), temperature – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
• degree Rankine (°R), temperature – William John Macquorn Rankine
• Dobson unit (DU), atmospheric ozone – Gordon Dobson
• erlang (E), dimensionless volume of telecommunications traffic – Agner Krarup Erlang
• fermi (fm), distance – Enrico Fermi
• hartley (Hart), information – Ralph Hartley
• hartree (Ha), energy – Douglas Hartree
• Hounsfield scale, radiodensity – Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield
• jansky (Jy), electromagnetic flux – Karl Jansky
• langley (ly), solar radiation – Samuel Pierpont Langley
• langmuir (L), gas exposure dose – Irving Langmuir
• neper (Np), relative power level – John Napier
• degree Öchsle (°Oe), density – Ferdinand Öchsle
• Rockwell scale (HR), indentation hardness – Stanley Rockwell
• röntgen (R), dosage of X-rays or gamma radiation – Wilhelm Röntgen
• Richter magnitude, earthquake power – Charles Francis Richter
• Scoville units, capsaicin content of chili peppers – Wilbur Scoville
• shannon (Sh), information – Claude Shannon ^[1]
• siegbahn (xu), distance – Manne Siegbahn
• svedberg (S or Sv), sedimentation rate – Theodor Svedberg
• sverdrup (Sv), volume transport rate – Harald Sverdrup
• torr (Torr), pressure – Evangelista Torricelli
• troland (Td), luminance (human eye) – Leonard Troland

Natural unit systems

• Planck units  – Max Planck
• Stoney units  – George Stoney

No longer in use

• Mercalli intensity scale, earthquake effects – Giuseppe Mercalli
• degree Réaumur (°R), temperature – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur
• degree Delisle (°D), temperature – Joseph-Nicolas Delisle
• degree Newton (°N), temperature – Isaac Newton
• degree Rømer (°Rø), temperature – Ole Rømer
• degree Baumé (°Bé), density – Antoine Baumé
• einstein (E), photochemistry – Albert Einstein
• poncelet (p), power – Jean-Victor Poncelet
• faraday (Fd), electrical charge – Michael Faraday

See also

• List of eponyms
• Lists of etymologies
• List of obsolete units of measurement
• List of unusual units of measurement
• List of humorous units of measurement
• List of scientists whose names are used as SI units
• List of scientists whose names are used as non SI units

References

1. "IEC 80000-13:2008". International Organization for Standardization . Retrieved 21 July 2013.