Video Transcript
Which of the following is the
correct unit symbol for amperes? (A) uppercase I, (B) uppercase C,
(C) lowercase a, (D) uppercase A, or (E) lowercase i.
The ampere is the SI unit for
electric current. This question is asking for the
unit symbol for amperes. Amperes are a special type of base
units because they are named after a person, André-Marie Ampère. Ampère was a physicist who did a
lot of important work on electricity and magnetism.
Recall that the SI system of units
has two rules regarding units named after people. The first rule is that units named
after scientists are not written with a capital letter except when it appears at the
beginning of a sentence, so the letter A is not capitalized when writing out the
full word ampere.
The second rule is that symbols of
the units named after scientists should be written with a capital letter, for
example, a capital N for newton and a capital A for ampere.
When following the SI unit rules,
the correct answer for this question is option (D). The unit symbol for amperes is a
capital A.