Do you know what connects the French Andre-Marie Ampère and the British William Thompson? Well, they were both physicists and both lived in the early 19th century (although Ampère died in 1836 and Thomson wasn’t born until 1824). But my point is that they are the only two whose names have become a base unit of the International System of Units (SI).
“Ampere” is used to measure electric current and “Kelvin” to measure temperature (Lord Kelvin was a peerage title Thomson received later in life). The remaining base units (the second, metre, kilogram, mole, and candela) are not named after humans. Of course, there are a lot of units derived from it, and almost all of them bear the name of a scientist (not the name of a woman). Newtons for force, hertz for frequency, watts for power, and so on. Among the units that are not part of the International System of Units, there are many researchers (and at least one researcher in the ancient “Curie” unit of radioactivity).
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Undoubtedly, the International System of Units is of great importance to science. Without clearly defined binding units, there are no traceable measurements – and thus no useful research either. I still like the other modules, because you can usually find a lot of interesting stories, like this one:
“Alcohol buff. Troublemaker. Introvert. Student. Social media lover. Web ninja. Bacon fan. Reader.”