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.

[edit] Parts

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

Parts 14 and 15 (only the former of which has been published) are planned to be replaced by IEC 80003, dedicated to physiological quantities across science and technology, currently in draft (as of June 2009).

[edit] IEC TC 25

Anders J. Thor, the chairman of IEC TC 25, has said that there are four systems of writing that bridge all linguistic barriers regardless of the alphabet used. These systems are:^[1]

• the set of mathematical signs and symbols
• the SI
• the symbols for chemical elements
• the way of writing notes for music

The first three systems will be given in ISO/IEC 80000.

[edit] 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).

[edit] References

1. ^ IEC: SI Zone: The present situation in the IEC. Consulted 2009-07-28.

[edit] 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

[edit] 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