International standard ISO 80000 or IEC 80000 (depending on which of the two international standards bodies International Organization for Standardization and International Electrotechnical Commission is in charge of each respective part), successor of ISO 31 and partially of IEC 60027, is the most widely respected style guide for the use of physical quantities and units of measurement, and formulas involving them, in scientific and educational documents worldwide. In most countries, the notations used in mathematics and science textbooks at schools and universities follow closely the guidelines given by these standard.

The ISO/IEC 80000 family of standards is still under development but many of its parts have been published as of 2008. It has been proposed that the quantities and equations used with the SI will be known as the International System of Quantities.

Parts

The "Quantities and units" standard will eventually come in 15 parts:

• ISO 80000-1: General (formerly ISO 31-0, IEC 60027-1 and IEC 60027-3)
• ISO 80000-2: Mathematical signs and symbols to be used in the natural sciences and technology (formerly ISO 31-11, IEC 60027-1)
• ISO 80000-3: Space and time (formerly ISO 31-1 and ISO 31-2)
• ISO 80000-4: Mechanics (formerly ISO 31-3)
• ISO 80000-5: Thermodynamics (formerly ISO 31-4)
• IEC 80000-6: Electromagnetism (formerly ISO 31-5, IEC 60027-1)
• ISO 80000-7: Light (ISO 31-6)
• ISO 80000-8: Acoustics (ISO 31-7)
• ISO 80000-9: Physical chemistry and molecular physics (ISO 31-8)
• ISO 80000-10: Atomic and nuclear physics (ISO 31-9 and ISO 31-10)
• ISO 80000-11: Characteristic numbers (ISO 31-12)
• ISO 80000-12: Solid state physics (ISO 31-13)
• IEC 80000-13: Information science and technology (formerly subclauses 3.8 and 3.9 of IEC 60027-2:2005 and IEC 60027-3)
• IEC 80000-14: Telebiometrics related to human physiology (IEC 60027-7)
• IEC 80000-15: Telebiometrics related to telehealth and world-wide telemedicines

Binary prefixes

A 1999 addendum to IEC 60027-2 on binary prefixes has resulted in some public interest in the standard and is still being widely discussed in the computer community, as it attempts to finally settle the confusion about whether a kilobit corresponds to 1000 bits or 1024 bits.

The harmonized IEC 80000-13:2008 standard cancels and replaces subclauses 3.8 and 3.9 of IEC 60027-2:2005 (those defining Prefixes for binary multiples).

See also

• SI ? the international system of units
• BIPM ? publishes freely available information on SI units
• NIST ? official U.S. representative for SI; publishes freely available guide to use of SI

External links

• BIPM SI Brochure
• ISO TC12 standards ? Quantities, units, symbols, conversion factors
• NIST Special Publication 330 ? The International System of Units
• NIST Special Publication 811 ? Guide for the Use of the International System of Units

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