{"id":10840,"date":"2010-03-05T03:10:06","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T03:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/hella-good-mixing-science-and-california-slang-to-name-a-really-big-number-discoblog\/"},"modified":"2010-03-05T03:10:06","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T03:10:06","slug":"hella-good-mixing-science-and-california-slang-to-name-a-really-big-number-discoblog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/astronomy\/hella-good-mixing-science-and-california-slang-to-name-a-really-big-number-discoblog.php","title":{"rendered":"Hella Good: Mixing Science and California Slang to Name a Really Big Number | Discoblog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7136\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/5f90d_hella.jpg\" alt=\"hella\" width=\"220\" height=\"218\" align=\"left\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\">If you came across the number 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, which is a one followed by 27 zeroes, won&rsquo;t you say that&rsquo;s a hella lot of numbers?<\/p><p>UC Davis student Austin Sendek seems to think so. He has initiated a Facebook campaign to designate a scientifically accepted prefix for this number, 10^27. The prefix he chose is &ldquo;hella&rdquo; because it <em>is <\/em>&ldquo;a hell of a lot&rdquo; of numbers. It is also his way of mixing homegrown California slang with science. Sendek thinks the new prefix would be the best way to acknowledge the Golden State&rsquo;s hella hot contributions to science.<\/p><p>If Sendek&rsquo;s proposal is accepted, then hella would come right after &ldquo;yotta.&rdquo;<\/p><p><em><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/physicsworld.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/thats_hella_signatures.html\">Physics World<\/a><\/em> reports:<\/p><p><span><\/span>Yotta (10<sup>24<\/sup>), which was established in 2001, is currently the largest number established in the International System of Units (SI) &mdash; the world&rsquo;s most widely used system of measurement &mdash; with zeta (10<sup>21<\/sup>), exa (10<sup>18<\/sup>) and peta (10<sup>15<\/sup>) following close behind.<\/p><p>Already, Sendek&rsquo;s <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/The-Official-Petition-to-Establish-Hella-as-the-SI-Prefix-for-1027\/277479937276?v=info\">Facebook fan page<\/a> for the new designator has racked up a huge following, with more than 30,000 fans.<\/p><div><p>But what would you use hella for in science? DISCOVER&rsquo;s <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2010\/03\/02\/hella-yes\/\">Cosmic Variance<\/a> explains that a hellasecond is ten billion times the age of the universe, and the mass of the earth is about 6 hellagrams. Sendek says you could also use hella to describe the wattage of the Sun, the space between galaxies, or the number of atoms in a sample.<\/p><p>Sendek has already written to the Consultative Committee for Units (CCU) which advises the International Committee for Weights and Measures&ndash;the body that makes the final decisions on the prefixes. However, CCU&rsquo;s head, Ian Mills, has said that he&rsquo;s skeptical that hella will win approval.<\/p><p>Related Content:<br>Cosmic Variance: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/cosmicvariance\/2010\/03\/02\/hella-yes\/\">Hella&hellip;yes!<\/a><\/p><p><em>Image: Facebook\/ The official petition to establish &ldquo;Hella&rdquo;<\/em><\/p><\/div><p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/UfuTXqeVOMg4FcXSga92dechKso\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/26c68_di\" border=\"0\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><br><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/UfuTXqeVOMg4FcXSga92dechKso\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/26c68_di\" border=\"0\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><\/p><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/26c68_2gUQ0hInuWM\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you came across the number 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, which is a one followed by 27 zeroes, won&rsquo;t you say that&rsquo;s a hella lot of numbers?UC Davis student Austin Sendek seems to think so. He has initiated a Facebook campaign to designate &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/astronomy\/hella-good-mixing-science-and-california-slang-to-name-a-really-big-number-discoblog.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}