The Centre for Sport and Exercise Science
10.1 Appendices Page 1
10.1 UNITS SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS
The International System of Units (Système International d'Unités) or SI system as
it is usually referred to, is the internationally preferred system and uses metric
values.
The major fundamental and derived units with which we are concerned are:
Physical quantity
Name of SI unit
Symbol
metre
kilogram
second
mole
m
kg
s
mol
joule
newton
watt
J
N
W
Fundamental
Length
Mass
Time
Amount of substance
Derived
Energy
Force
Power
The folowing prefixes can be used in the mantissa and exponent form:
Multiple
Prefix
Symbol
Multiple
Prefix
Symbol
10-1
10-2
10-3
10-6
10-9
10-12
10-15
10-18
deci
centi
milli
micro
nano
pico
femto
atto
d
c
m
µ
n
p
f
a
10
102
103
106
109
1012
1015
1018
deca
hecto
kilo
mega
giga
tera
peta
exa
da
h
k
M
G
T
P
E
The Centre for Sport and Exercise Science
10.1 Appendices Page 2
SYMBOLS USED IN THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE
These are based on the Pappenheimer convention
Characteristic
Symbol
Gas volume
V
Gas volume per unit time
V
Gas pressure
Factional concentration
Respiratory exchange ratio
Inspired gas
Expired gas
Alveolar gas
Arterial blood
Venous blood
Capillary blood
Standard conditions
Body conditions
Ambient conditions
P
F
R
I
E
A
a
v
c
STPD
BTPS
ATPD
These tables are not intended to be exhaustive, they simply provide a basis.
References
McArdle, W.D., Katch, F.I. and Katch, V.L. (1996) Exercise Physiology (Fourth
Edition). Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, Maryland.
Pappenheimer, J.L. (1950) Standardisations of definitions and symbols in
respiratory physiology. Federation Proceedings, 9: 602-605.
Royal Society Symbols Committee (1975) Quantities, Units and Symbols. The
Royal Society, London.