Forums » CircuitLab Feature Requests

Could you add an option to skip the nF units on the display, and go directly from uF to uuF or pF? Us old timey guys are thrown by these newfangled "nF" capacitors. We're used to seeing 0.22uF, 0.022uF, 0.0022uF, then 220pF or uuF and so on.

Same thing with nanovolts. Nobody born before 1970 has ever learned those nano units. Volts, millivolts, and microvolts we're comfortable with.

But it's a slippery slope, the real old-timers will want M for thousands, and the French will want capacitors measured in centimeters.

Er, that would be centimetres!

Maybe it's a european thing but I'm well pre-1970 and very comfy with nano-thingies.

OTOH, I still would rather my Brit Billions were 10^12 and not those puny 10^9 jobbies you have on the West cost of the Pond.

:)

I notice the BBC is sensitive to this distinction and they always say "thousand million pounds". Let's hope they don't go full-euro and change to saying "inverse nano pounds".

"NOBODY BORN BEFORE 1970 HAS EVER LEARNED THOSE NANO UNITS" ??? What hogwash. I earned my bachelors in electronics engineering in the '70s, and I just looked at my senior design project writeup, and was using nF and IEC resistor symbols throughout. And as a fifth generation Californian, this isn't some European or British bias. I never had a problem with identifying the purpose of my Keithley 148 nanovoltmeter, manufactured in 1975, nor had any confusion with optical wavelengths measured in nanometers.

Next you'll ask that we write microfarads and picofarads as my grandfather did, mf and mmf?

When I first started work whilst still a student in 1977, I worked with a chap who, when in need of a capacitor from the capacitors box, would politely ask,

"Could you pass me the jars please?"

:)

and for our younger readers ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyden_jar

Oh, yes - Kudos to CircuitLab. They are not only keeping with the proper convention on units, but doing it better than most schematic apps by actually using greek micro (1µF rather than 1uF.)