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. Note that by convention, the name of the unit is properly written in all-lowercase, but its abbreviation is capitalized.

SI base units

• ampere (A), electric current – André-Marie Ampère
• kelvin (K), thermodynamic temperature – Lord Kelvin

SI derived unit

• becquerel (Bq), radioactivity – Henri Becquerel
• degree Celsius (°C), temperature – Anders Celsius
• coulomb (C), electric charge – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
• decibel (dB), ratio – Alexander Graham Bell
• 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
• newton (N), force – Isaac Newton
• ohm (Ω), electrical resistance – Georg Ohm
• pascal (Pa), pressure – Blaise Pascal
• Rayl or Rayleigh (Rayl), acoustic impedance – Lord Rayleigh
• 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

Centimetre–gram–second system of 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 John 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

• ångström (Å), distance – Anders Jonas Ångström
• baud (Bd), symbol rate – Emile 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 Rankine (°R), temperature – William John Macquorn Rankine
• Dobson unit (DU), atmospheric ozone – Gordon Dobson
• erlang (E), dimensionless volume of telecommunications traffic – Agner Krarup Erlang
• degree Fahrenheit (°F), temperature – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
• fermi (fm), distance – Enrico Fermi
• hartley (Hart), information – Ralph Hartley
• 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
• Mach number (Ma), relative speed – Ernst Mach
• 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
• siegbahn (xu), distance – Manne Siegbahn
• shannon (Sh), information – Claude Shannon^[1]
• 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