Did You Know? Scient”ist”ic Units

Many units of measurement are named after scientists to recognize their work in their chosen fields.

Research each of these scientists and complete the table.

Scientist Unit What Unit Measures
Michael Faraday Farad Electrical capacitance
Georg Simon Ohm
Sir Isaac Newton
James Watt
James Prescott Joule
William Thomson Kelvin
Andre Marie Ampere
Anders Celsius
Madam Marie Curie
Blaise Pascal
Charles Augustin de Coulomb
Heinrich Hertz

Did you know? When is a second not a second?

Most of us know that a second is a unit of time. There are sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in a hour.

However, the term second is also a term used in measuring angles. Angles are usually measured in degrees. However, like most measurements, we can get very precise. Degrees are divided into 60 minutes (1 degree = 60 minutes) and minutes are further divided into seconds (1 minute = 60 seconds).

In mapping on a global scale, precise measurement is key. A difference of 1 second of longitude or latitude is over 100 feet (depending on terrain).