Video Transcript
Which of the following is the
correct unit symbol for volts? (A) Capital P, (B) capital V, (C)
lowercase v, (D) capital W, (E) lowercase w.
This question is asking for the
unit symbol for volts. Volts are a special type of unit
because they are named after a person, and in this case that person is Alessandro
Volta. Alessandro Volta was a scientist
who discovered batteries, among other important work in the fields of electricity
and magnetism.
To identify the symbol for volts,
it will be helpful to remember that the SI system of units has a few rules regarding
units named after people. The first rule is that units named
after scientists are not written with a capital letter (except when appearing at the
beginning of a sentence). So, the letter v is not capitalized
when writing out the full word “volts.” The second rule is that symbols of
the units named after scientists should be written as a capital letter, the first
letter of the unit name. For example, that would be capital
N for newtons and capital V for volts.
Now, there are quite a few SI units
that are named after scientists, so it may be a good idea to memorize these
rules. When we consider the SI unit rules,
the correct answer for this question is option (B), which is the symbol capital
V.
