The other day I saw a signboard announcing `XYZ Factory: 12 KM ahead’. KM surely meant kilometers. But is KM the correct symbol for kilometers?
SI (Système International d’unités, meaning International System of Units) is the modern metric system of measurement and symbols. It is founded on seven base units. See Table below:
|
|
SI base unit
|
|
|
length |
meter |
m |
|
mass |
kilogram |
kg |
|
time |
second |
s |
|
electric current |
ampere |
A |
|
thermodynamic temperature |
kelvin |
K |
|
amount of substance |
mole |
mol |
|
luminous intensity |
candela |
cd |
As per SI convention, only those symbols that abbreviate the name of a person start with a capital letter. The one exception is litre whose symbol is L, the reason being symbol l (lowercase of L) was getting confused with numeral 1 (one).
It should have been `km’ and not `KM’ on the signboard. Similarly we see lot of incorrect symbols in product packaging and even in scientific and technical literature.
When we do not like our names misspelt, why do we allow ourselves to use incorrect symbols?
S .Gopal
….Keying in is better than idling
