Learning by Degrees

Even writers and editors who work with nontechnical documents will encounter the occasional abbreviated unit of measure or other abbreviation from the sciences. Knowing some basic conventions about such expressions will help you spot potential errors.

To test your knowledge, take the quiz. And if you haven’t taken it yet, try our quiz on scholarly abbreviations.

Subscribers to The Chicago Manual of Style Online may click through to the linked sections of the Manual (cited in the answers). (We also offer a 30-day free trial of CMOS Online.)

Note: Style guides sometimes disagree. Except for a few details that can be verified in standard dictionaries and encyclopedias and other readily available sources, the answers in this quiz rely on the information in The Chicago Manual of Style.

Now updated to refer and link to the 18th edition.

Chicago Style Workout 79: Some Technical Abbreviations

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1. In the sciences, standard abbreviations for units of measure are known as

cubits

symbols

2. Abbreviations for units of measure add an s in the plural—for example, 1 kg but 2 kgs (for one and two kilograms, respectively).

True

False

3. What is the abbreviation for ampere (the unit of electric current)?

A

a

4. The abbreviation for curie (the unit of radioactivity) is Ci. Why is the C capitalized?

Abbreviations related to radiation always begin with an initial capital

It’s derived from a surname

5. The abbreviation for liter is L. Why is the L capitalized?

So it won’t be mistaken for a one

It’s derived from a surname

6. What is the abbreviation for decibel (the unit of loudness)?

Db

dB

7. In formal scientific usage, there’s a space before but not after the degree sign (°) in temperatures: 8 °C.

True

False

8. Which of the following is an abbreviation for cubic centimeter?

cc

cm³

both of the above

9. How is erg (the unit of work) normally abbreviated?

er

It’s usually spelled in full

10. The abbreviation for byte is commonly written as a capital B and bit as a lowercase b, as in MB (megabyte) and Mb (megabit).

True

False

11. Bonus question: Why is the International System of Units abbreviated SI and not IS?

It abbreviates the French name of the system

To avoid confusion with the common verb is

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Marie and Pierre Curie using equipment in their Paris laboratory (ca. 1900), cropped for post. Courtesy Wellcome Collection, public domain.

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