handbook of modern sensors

1.3 Units of Measurements 9
Table 1.4. Conversion Phenomena
Physical
Chemical
Thermoelectric Chemical transformation
Photoelectric
Physical transformation
Photomagnetic Electrochemical process
Magnetoelectric Spectroscopy
Electromagnetic Other
Thermoelastic Biological
Electroelastic
Biochemical transformation
Thermomagnetic Physical transformation
Thermooptic
Effect on test organism
Photoelastic
Spectroscopy
Other
Other
Table 1.5. Field of Applications
Agriculture
Civil engineering, construction
Distribution, commerce, finance
Energy, power
Health, medicine
Manufacturing
Military
Scientific measurement
Transportation (excluding automotive)
Automotive
Domestic, appliances
Environment, meteorology, security
Information, telecommunication
Marine
Recreation, toys
Space
Other
1.3 Units of Measurements
In this book, we use base units which have been established in The 14th General
Conference on Weights and Measures (1971). The base measurement system is known
as SI which stands for French “Le Systéme International d’Unités” (Table 1.7) [4].
All other physical quantities are derivatives of these base units. Some of them are
listed in Table A.3.
Often, it is not convenient to use base or derivative units directly; in practice,
quantities may be either too large or too small. For convenience in the engineering
work, multiples and submultiples of the units are generally employed. They can be
obtained by multiplying a unit by a factor from Table A.2. When pronounced, in all
cases the first syllable is accented. For example, 1 ampere (A) may be multiplied by
factor of 10 −3 to obtain a smaller unit: 1 milliampere (mA), which is one-thousandth
of an ampere.
Sometimes, two other systems of units are used. They are the Gaussian System
and the British System, which in the United States its modification is called the U.S.
Customary System. The United States is the only developed country in which SI