'Hella Big': Soon To Be A Scientific Measurement?

[Kadie]

Mar 1, 2010 10:24 pm US/Pacific
'Hella Big': Soon To Be A Scientific Measurement?

DAVIS, Calif. (CBS13) ― An oft-hated slang word coined in Northern California has been proposed as a worthy entry into the field of scientific measurement when calculating enormous numbers.

Austin Sendek, a physics student at UC Davis, wants the number of 10 to the 27th power -- a trillion trillions -- to officially become "hella" big.

Along the lines of using the "kilo" prefix for kilometers or "giga" for gigabyte, Sendek is petitioning the International System of Units (SI) to use the term "hella" to describe really, really big measurements; such as the size of the universe.

"The diameter of the universe is 1.4 hellameters," Sendek said. "You know if someone says that's 'hella meters' you know exactly what they're talking about."

Under Sendek's proposed terminology, you would say the mass of the earth is six hellagrams, and the power of the sun is 0.3 hellawatts.

Physics professor Daniel Cox says he gets a kick out of the idea, but points out the number is so big, you can't use it to count the age of the universe, believed to be a measly five times 10 to the power of 17 seconds.

more...
http://cbs13.com/local/hella.big.uc.2.1529825.html

[Duer 157099]

1. ohgod ohgod ohgod I thought for sure "the Onion" !!

Too funny, and yet oh so true. From a Nor Cal'n who resisted for the longest time and now have heard myself use that term (not often, but once was enough to shock the hell outta me hella big time)

[Selatius]

2. That's like the episode of Futurama where Doc. Farnsworth measured cool in units of the Fonz.

For example, Austin Sendek is registering a whopping 9.5 mega-Fonzis on the meter!

[Mz Pip]

3. That is hella cool. n/t

[Edweird]

4. Aw man, "Hella" is played out.

[a la izquierda]

5. I hate that word, hella...

it crept into southern california when i lived there.

[Poll_Blind]

6. "Sulu, bring the badonkadonk drive up to bitchin' mark II and hold until we reach the station." n/t

PB

[gcomeau]

7. Oh dammit...

If this happens Sendek better not bump into me in a dark alley. Like having a bunch of brain dead little adolescent morons running around calling everything "hella" something isn't bad enough. Next we can start re-writing scientific terminology into "valley-girl" speak.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Sounds good to me.

While we're at it, we should change "giga" to "jigga" to reflect 1985/1955 usage of the suffix.

[izzybeans]

9. Maybe those 1920's retreds were right, pot does cause Schizophrenia.

[bananas]

10. Sounds like greek to me.

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

[NickB79]

11. You guys are hella stupid, you guys are hella lame

Hella hella hella!