Names and Eponyms
People's names take capital initials (Michael Jones, Mary Smith), as do their appellations (Mr, Ms, Mrs, Miss, Rev, Dr, Prof), but the capitalisation
of eponyms (words derived from people's names) is less consistent. Most take lower case –
nicotine (Jean Nicot)
ohm (Georg Simon Ohm)
sadist (Marquis de Sade)
sandwich (the 4th Earl of Sandwich)
saxophone (Antoine Sax)
volt (Alessandro Volt)
watt (James Watt)
When a unit of measurement is named after someone, convention has it that the word is written entirely in lower case when talking about that unit, but the single letter abbreviation of that unit is written in upper case.
Some examples should clarify this.
The unit of voltage is the volt, named after Volta, and abbreviated to V.
The unit of current is the ampere, named after Ampère, and abbreviated to A.
The unit of resistance is the ohm, named after Ohm, abbreviated in this case with the Greek letter Ω, pronounced omega, (not omeega).
So, 5V and 12 volts are both correct, but 5v and 12 Volts are not.
People's names take capital initials (Michael Jones, Mary Smith), as do their appellations (Mr, Ms, Mrs, Miss, Rev, Dr, Prof), but the capitalisation
of eponyms (words derived from people's names) is less consistent. Most take lower case –
nicotine (Jean Nicot)
ohm (Georg Simon Ohm)
sadist (Marquis de Sade)
sandwich (the 4th Earl of Sandwich)
saxophone (Antoine Sax)
volt (Alessandro Volt)
watt (James Watt)
When a unit of measurement is named after someone, convention has it that the word is written entirely in lower case when talking about that unit, but the single letter abbreviation of that unit is written in upper case.
Some examples should clarify this.
The unit of voltage is the volt, named after Volta, and abbreviated to V.
The unit of current is the ampere, named after Ampère, and abbreviated to A.
The unit of resistance is the ohm, named after Ohm, abbreviated in this case with the Greek letter Ω, pronounced omega, (not omeega).
So, 5V and 12 volts are both correct, but 5v and 12 Volts are not.
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