this post was submitted on 29 May 2026
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.wtf/post/43436964

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[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

am i the only one who thinks "volta" sounds much much worse as a unit? Like, there's a reason people say "amp" instead of "ampere", we don't like saying needlessly long words all the time.
Even if you change the official name i'm almost certain it'll just get shortened back down.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

In my country nobody says Amp, we all say Ampere, an Volta sounds absolutely fine, IDK why it was anglicized?

[–] obvs@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

An even better question is "Why would countries not be allowed to localize standardized words for their own languages?"

Would it seriously be a problem if Italy used "volta" and the U.S. used "volt"?

Has it been a problem with France using "litre" and Italy and Spain using "litro" and the U.S. using "liter"?

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I think it's a science thing, just like in biology and medicine they use latin, and math has standardized symbols.
Standards are cool, and the standard for the French litre is liter, despite the liter is of French origin as part of the metric system. And was defined as litre in France in 1793, where the name was based on the older french litron.

For some weird reason these standards are almost always anglified no matter what their origins were?
I suppose Italy is free to use Volta, but it is not the agreed upon international standard.

[–] Dicska@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Imagine looking for a Philip screwdriver.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Here's the flipping screwdriver. 🪛
Not that that's a flat! I said PHILIP not flipping!
Thank god it's Philips with an s. 🙏

[–] smeenz@lemmy.nz 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

But what you really wanted was a pozidriv

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I had to look that up, but yes absolutely.
Here we actually don't normally call them Philips, but "star" screwdrivers, star being "stjerne" in Danish.