New prefixes for units

The National Bureau of Standards (NBS), as announced in the NBS Technical bulletin, October 1959, has decided to follow the recommendations of the International Committee on Weights and Measures to use new prefixes for denoting multiples and submultiples of units. The Committee adopted the prefixes at its meeting in Paris, France, in the Fall of 1958. In addition to the 8 numerical prefixes in common use, which are given in the accompanying table, the Committee expanded the list by adding the 4 prefixes marked with an asterisk. Thus, for example, 10⁻¹² farad is called 1 picofarad, and is abbreviated 1 pf.