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[Reply #15 on:]

There's decibels of course and decilitres are sometimes used, but otherwise only centi has survived (centimetre, centilitre) in the real world. Hectare is the unit to all intents and purposes, no-one uses ares do they?  Angstroms are gradually losing the battle to nanometres.

Decilitres, decagrams, hectograms etc. are all heavily used throughout mainland Europe.
I'm not sure that part of the world is part of your real world though.

[Reply #16 on:]

Never ever seen decagrams or hectograms in UK, nor on any food packaging around Europe - I think this is probably very culturally specific.

[Reply #17 on:]

Decilitres, decagrams, hectograms etc. are all heavily used throughout mainland Europe.

Really?  Like MarkT, I'm mostly basing my experiences on food products.  For example at http://sverigeonline.se/ we see thing in packages of "300 g", "1,4 l", etc...  I wouldn't entirely trust what is written on packages exported to the US, but that's an actual Swedish website, right?

[Reply #18 on:]

Am I the only one around here old enough to remember the REAL units for small capacitances -  miki-mikes.  Hint: Think micro - micro ...

[Reply #19 on:]

Am I the only one around here old enough to remember the REAL units for small capacitances -  miki-mikes.  Hint: Think micro - micro ...

I'm old and uf and uuf was what I grew up with. I don't mind the new capacitor units so much as how sparsely they label the values on them small ones, 103, how the hell am I suppose to know what units that is? Oh well won't be a problem for long as soon only fly spec size SMD caps will be avalible and they are to small to try and label.

Lefty

[Reply #20 on:]

I somewhere have a sheet that explains some of the 3 digit capacitance codes - I'll check tomorrow and see if I can find it.  But it is not only the (physically) small ones.  I bought some .47µF 500VDC units recently (the size of your thumb) for a voltage doubler and trigger transformer circuit.  The voltage was clearly marked, and down in one corner, really small, they were marked .47k.  I guess that refers to .47 thousand nF.  I guess their font table didn't have µ.

[Reply #21 on:]

If you can read the writing on some modern components your eyesight is better than mine. I have to use a digital microscope to see some of them. For example, a resistor network (?) near the Tx label of the Uno.

[Reply #22 on:]

And this one ... whose brilliant idea was it to label components with black writing on dark gray background?

[Reply #23 on:]

Really?  Like MarkT, I'm mostly basing my experiences on food products.  For example at http://sverigeonline.se/ we see thing in packages of "300 g", "1,4 l", etc...  I wouldn't entirely trust what is written on packages exported to the US, but that's an actual Swedish website, right?

We're getting further and further off-topic here...

Yes, that's swedish site but I never said that these units are used on packages. Markings on packages are standardized for international reasons. That inludes units as well as expiration dates.

Grocery stores and markets in Sweden use the hectogram to specify prices for some groceries. My guess is that it's a leftover from the days when the storeowner used a scale with counterweights to measure the goods. I don't know how common this is in other countries.
Decilitres are used as measures in recipes in Europe. The decilitre is the most frequently used measure at least in the Swedish kitchen.
I've never seen the decagram in Sweden but I've seen it being used in German recipes.
I'm sure these units are used in other ways in other countries but the point is that they are used in the real world. You just have to look a bit further.

I personally also use the decimetre to loosely specify things like depths of snow. A decimetre is technically 100 millimetres but when you say "a decimetre" it's clear that you're not being that precise. Just because we don't use feet, stones or gallons as measurements doesn't mean we don't do rough estimates. And it's not uncommon to use the closest available unit to keep the numbers down.

None of the mentioned units are used for scientific purposes as far as I know.