An SI Mnemonic Students can use the acronym SMALL PETT to remember the physical quantities associated with the nine base SI units, each letter of the acronym representing the initial letter of one of the quantities. The units themselves may be remembered using readily visualized, phonetic link words. For instance, "A SMALL P E W steer (steradian) killed (kilogram) a mole that was holding a candle (candela) one meter away from a radiant (radian) lamp (ampere), on which was perched a condor (second), draped with vines (kelvin)." Physical Quantity Solid angle Mass Amount of substance Luminous intensity Length Plane angle Electrical current Temperature Time
Unit steradian kilogram mole candela meter radian ampere kelvin second
Abbreviation sr kg mol
cd m rad A K
s
M. N. Quigley Chevron Science Center University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Volume 68 Number 10 October 1991
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