Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: Capacitor terminology



Hi,

Leigh Palmer wrote:

Subject: misconception regarding capacitors?
Textbooks tell us that a capacitor of capacitance 1E-10 is called a
100 pF capacitor. That's not true; it's called a 100 mmf capacitor,
or at least it useta be!

Why did they use mmF instead of pF?

Just a guess based on experience... The mmF and mF can easily be interchanged
typographically. One can accidentally forget an m when writing the cap's
value. Likewise, in schematic diagrams especially those that are complex
there is sometimes hardly space to write units. In some crowded schematics
10 mf (10 uF) is written 10u and 5 pF is written 5p whereas if you use
mmF then you can shorten it no further than 5mm which can be confusing.
The reader of the schematic might confuse it to mean millimeter.

Regards, Dave Cruz <DCRUZ@T1ACC1.INTEL.COM>
{Speaking for myself}

Steven T. Ratliff
Associate Professor of Physics
Northwestern College
3003 Snelling Av. N.
Saint Paul, MN 55113-1598

Internet: stratliff@nwc.edu (or str@nwc.edu)