LON-CAPA
Units
You can see the full list of units currently accepted by LON-CAPA by clicking on the small blue
question-mark symbol
that appears whenever you enter units that are not understood by the
program. The following tables are adapted from the LON-CAPA help file about acceptable units.
You can only use the symbols shown when entering the units. For example, you must use “35 kg”,
not “35 kilograms”. Combinations of units are written as “kg*m/s^2”, “J/(g*K)”, etc.
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Some Physical Units Accepted by LON-CAPA
Base Units
Prefixes
name
meter
kilogram
second
ampere
kelvin
mole
candela
symbol
m
kg
s
A
K
mol
cd
quantity
length
mass
time
electric current
thermodynamic temperature
amount of substance
luminous intensity
Common SI Derived Units
name
radian
degree
steradian
newton
joule
watt
pascal
hertz
coulomb
volt
ohm
farad
henry
tesla
weber
electronvolt
becquerel
gray
sievert
symbol
rad
deg
sr
N
J
W
Pa
Hz
C
V
ohm
F
H
T
Wb
eV
Bq
Gy
Sv
description
plane angle
plane angle (π rad = 180 deg)
solid angle
force
energy, work, heat
power, radiant flux
pressure, stress
frequency
electric charge
electric potential,
electromotive force
electric resistance
electric capacitance
inductance
magnetic flux density
magnetic flux
energy
activity (radioactive)
absorbed dose
(of radiation)
dose equivalent
(dose equivalent index)
Prefix
yotta
zetta
exa
peta
tera
giga
mega
kilo
hecto
deci
centi
milli
micro
nano
pico
femto
atto
zepto
yocto
symbol
Y
Z
E
P
T
G
M
k
h
d
c
m
u
n
p
f
a
z
y
factor
1024
1021
1018
1015
1012
109
106
103
102
10-1
10-2
10-3
10-6
10-9
10-12
10-15
10-18
10-21
10-24
Derived Units used in Chemistry
name
liter
gram
amu
symbol
L
g
amu
calorie
torr
mm Hg
atm
cal
torr
mmHg
atm
description
volume
mass
atomic
mass unit
energy
pressure
pressure
standard
atmosphere
Some Other Physical Units Accepted by LON-CAPA
name
ounce
pound
pound_force
dyne
hour
minute
day
year
astroUnit
inch
foot
mile
yard
nautical_mile
rood
acre
bar
Btu
ohm
ohm
ohm
siemens
lumen
lux
symbol
oz
lb
lbf
dyn
hr
min
day
yr
AU
in
ft
mi
yd
n_mi
rood
acre
bar
Btu
ohms
Ohm
Ohms
S
lm
lx
description
mass
mass
force
force
time
time
time
time
mean distance earth to sun
length
length
length
length
length, nautical mile (UK)
area
area
pressure
energy
electric resistance
electric resistance
electric resistance
electric conductance
luminous flux
illuminance
Warning to students:
You must remember that some of the ways you enter answers into LON-CAPA are wrong if used on an
exam, quiz, or in a lab report. They are used here because your computer keyboard does not have
Greek letters or a universal way of designating a superscript or subscript. The “micro” prefix μ is one
of those problem areas. You must enter um or uF when using LON-CAPA, but must write μm or μF
when doing anything else. This computer-only notation will be marked wrong on exams. Similarly,
you must use superscripts and subscripts correctly on everything else you do in your course. Using a
shortcut for scientific notation (such as 6.02e-9 for 6.02 H 10-9) or for chemical formulas (such as H2O
for H2O) is not acceptable and should never be used outside of LON-CAPA.
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Computer Geek Details
The coded units are interpreted in the order of basic unit, derived unit, then prefix. For example,
“min” will match “minutes” instead of being treated as a combination of the prefix “m” and the unit
“in”. Further, “T” by itself will always be matched against “tesla” instead of considered shorthand for
1012 (which would be improper usage in any case).