Richard J.C. Brown, a British chemist who studies weights and measures, has a big idea: He wants to name the next set of prefixes used to identify gargantuan numbers.
To facilitate international trade, manufacturing and scientific communication, most countries use a standard system of units sanctioned by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures.
The seven base units include the meter and second. The 20 prefixes include mega, giga and tera, meaning, in order, million, billion and trillion.
High-frequency trading, satellite navigation, the intensity of X-rays and even the precise way Lego bricks fit together benefit from the system of measures. But its list of prefixes tops out at yotta, or septillion, a number with 24 zeros.
That may not be enough.
In 10 or 15 years, Dr. Brown, who is head of metrology at the National Physical Laboratory in the U.K., anticipates the amount of computerized data worldwide will exceed 1 yottabyte in size, and without expanding the list of prefixes, there will be no way to talk about the next great chunk of numbers.
Even worse, dilettantes could fill the void by popularizing glib prefixes such as bronto or hella—terms that have already won fans.
Without professional intervention, Dr. Brown fears, the next numerical prefix could become the Boaty McBoatface of weights and measures.
“The most dangerous thing for people who set rules is that these prefixes get so widely adopted, they become de facto the names,” Dr. Brown said of the informal modifiers. “Then you have no option other than to use them.”
For the record, there is an argument to be made for adopting a prefix like bronto: giga and tera are based on the Greek words for “giant” and “monstrous.” Why not make bronto, named for the brontosaurus, official, perhaps along with tyranno, stego, colosso or even yeti?
Dr. Brown is sympathetic to the argument but unconvinced.
Instead, he proposes four prefixes that adhere to recent naming conventions: ronna and quecca for octillion (27 zeros) and nonillion (30 zeros), along with ronto and quecto for their fractional counterparts, octillionth and nonillionth.
Like the latest sanctioned prefixes, Dr. Brown’s proposals are loosely related to Latin and Greek words for numbers (in this case, nine and 10). And like most of the prefixes, his suggestions end in “a” or “o.”
But the process of expanding, or even amending, the official measurements is lengthy.
After decades of debate, the bureau only last year agreed to redefine the kilogram, a measure that for more than a century has been tied to the mass of a metal cylinder sanctioned in 1889 and stored in France. The new definition, based on a fixed numerical value for the amount of energy that light carries at a given frequency, takes effect in May.
Meanwhile, the last prefixes were added in 1991, when zetta, yotta, zepto and yocto standing for sextillion, septillion, sextillionth and septillionth, were sanctioned.
The Bureau of Weights and Measures Consultative Committee for Units will consider Dr. Brown’s proposal when it meets in Paris in October, but there is no guarantee that the proposal will pass muster. The executive secretary, Estefania de Mirandes, declined to speculate, and even if the committee likes the idea, final approval would take years.
The group, which meets on average every three years, could ask Dr. Brown for more work, or it could forward his proposal to the International Committee for Weights and Measures.
That group meets each year. If it approved the proposal, it would then forward it to the General Conference on Weights and Measures, a group that convenes every four years.
“They would make the ultimate decision,” Dr. Brown said. “They meet next in 2022, then in 2026.”
Even then, the proposal could be rejected.
A potential sticking point is that Dr. Brown’s primary reason for coining the terms is to ensure that big data can grow even bigger with a vocabulary to match.
Computer scientists and engineers, borrowing official prefixes, already use megabyte, gigabyte and terabyte to describe the capacity of a computer hard drive. But “byte” isn’t a unit under the control of the Bureau of Weights and Measures, and serving the data community isn’t traditionally a concern of the bureau.
In addition, since the last expansion, the Consultative Committee of Units has resisted efforts to add more prefixes.
In 1995, it debated the need to extend the range, Dr. Brown said. The discussion continued in 2001, when the group decided it wasn’t required. And in 2010, it reiterated that decision.
“This is a relatively conservative community,” Dr. Brown said. “Things change slowly.”
But this year, if the time is right, he’s got their number.