The guys from Speery I mentioned were saying 'jigahertz in 1957 when I got some help and a klystron from them to build a microwave transmitter receiver system for a Jr. high school science fair project.
Cliff Tom Barry wrote:
In between stints in physics and computers I majored for a couple years in Human Communications. There I once took a language theory course that suggested in most any language a word that gets frequently used will evolve to become shorter and/or easier to pronounce. It's my belief that the jiga prefix was probably correct before we computer guys got a hold of it and actually had things to commonly discuss with counts in the billions, whereupon it became pronounce giga, with a hard g. So I think both Doc Markley and Doc Brown were right at the time but the j pronunciation has changed and is no longer correct. - Tom Hunold, Ken wrote:Well, "Doctor Don" Markley, my old college professor's use of jigacycles, jigahertz, and jigawatts predates BTTF by at least ten years. In his honor, I've tried to use this pronunciation wherever I can get away with it. Ken Hunold -----Original Message----- From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Barry Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:32 AM To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [opendtv] Re: California Prepares to Limit TV Energy Use Cliff Benham wrote:Some microwave guys from Speery I know call them 'jigacycles' and 'jigawatts'. So that may be where it came from...>From the NY Times: <http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/you-say-gigawatt-i-say-jigow att/> --------------------------------------------------------------- April 8, 2008 , /12:56 pm/ You Say Gigawatt, I Say Jigowatt By Richard S. Chang <http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/author/richard-s-chang/> DeLoreanLauren Reilly's 1981 DeLorean DMC-12. (Mark Rabiner for The New York Times) In the course of writing about Lauren Reilly's DeLorean <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/automobiles/collectibles/06EGO.html>, I came across a strange dilemma concerning one of the quotes from "Back to the Future." In the scene where Marty McFly tells Young Doc Brown the amount of energy needed to power the flux capacitor, Brown has a minor meltdown. "1.21 JIGOWATTS!" he says over and over. That's how it's written in the script - jigowatt. But you won't find the word in the dictionary. What you will find is gigawatt. And since we pronounce gigabyte with a hard g, it seems logical that gigawatt would follow suit. According to BTTF.com <http://www.bttf.com/>, an unofficial movie fan site, the subject was addressed in the Special Edition DVD by Bob Gale, the movie's producer, in his voice-over commentary <http://www.bttf.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-33678.html> during the scene with the scale model: I should talk about jigowatts for a second. The proper pronunciation is, of course, gigawatts [with a hard g sound], and when Bob [Zemeckis] and I were doing research, we talked to somebody who mispronounced it jigowatts. And we were actually completely unfamiliar with the term, and we thought that was how it was supposed to be said. It does come from the Greek root gigas [that Greek root is pronounced with a j sound, not a g sound], for gigantic, so I suppose it's not beyond the realm of possibility. But never having heard of it, we actually spelled it in the script jigowatt. So a jigowatt is actually supposed to be a gigawatt, a million watts. So the mystery of the gigawatts is now solved. I wish it were that simple. According to Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_future>, the official National Institute of Standards and Technology pronunciation is with a soft g. The Merriam-Webster dictionary lists two pronunciations <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gigawatt>: soft g first, then followed by a hard g. It seems Doc Brown was right all along. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings atFreeLists.org- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. ----------------------------------------- This message (including any attachments) may contain confidential information intended for a specific individual and purpose. If you are not the intended recipient, delete this message. If you are not the intended recipient, disclosing, copying, distributing, or taking any action based on this message is strictly prohibited.----------------------------------------------------------------------You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.----------------------------------------------------------------------You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.