# List of scientific units named after people

This is a list of scientific units named after people. For other lists of eponyms (names derived from people) see eponym. By convention, the name of the unit is properly written starting with a lowercase letter (except where any word would be capitalized), but the first letter of its symbol is a capital letter if it is derived from a proper name.

## SI units

* ampere (A), electric current – André-Marie Ampère
* becquerel (Bq), radioactivity – Henri Becquerel
* degree Celsius (°C), temperature – Anders Celsius
* coulomb (C), electric charge – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
* farad (F), capacitance – Michael Faraday
* gray (Gy), absorbed dose of radiation – Louis Harold Gray
* henry (H), inductance – Joseph Henry
* hertz (Hz), frequency – Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
* joule (J), energy, work, heat – James Prescott Joule
* kelvin (K), thermodynamic temperature – Lord Kelvin
* newton (N), force – Isaac Newton
* ohm (Ω), electrical resistance – Georg Ohm
* pascal (Pa), pressure – Blaise Pascal
* siemens (S), electrical conductance – Werner von Siemens
* sievert (Sv), radiation dose equivalent – Rolf Sievert
* tesla (T), magnetic flux density – Nikola Tesla
* volt (V), electric potential, electromotive force – Alessandro Volta
* watt (W), power, radiant flux – James Watt
* weber (Wb), magnetic flux – Wilhelm Eduard Weber

## CGS units

* biot (Bi), electric current – Jean-Baptiste Biot
* buckingham (B), electric quadrupole moment – A. David Buckingham
* debye (D), electric dipole moment – Peter Debye
* eotvos (E), gravitational gradient – Loránd Eötvös
* galileo (Gal), acceleration – Galileo Galilei
* gauss (G or Gs), magnetic flux density – Carl Friedrich Gauss
* gilbert (Gb), magnetomotive force – William Gilbert
* goeppert-mayer (GM), two-photon absorption cross section – Maria Goeppert Mayer
* kayser (kayser), wavenumber – Heinrich Kayser
* maxwell (Mx), magnetic flux – James Clerk Maxwell
* oersted (Oe), magnetic field strength – Hans Christian Ørsted
* poise (P), dynamic viscosity – Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille
* Rayl or Rayleigh (Rayl), acoustic impedance – John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh
* rayleigh (R), photon flux – Robert Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh
* stokes (S or St), kinematic viscosity – George Gabriel Stokes

### No longer in use

* franklin (Fr), electric charge – Benjamin Franklin
* clausius (Cl), entropy – Rudolf Clausius

## Others

* angstrom (Å), distance – Anders Jonas Ångström
* baud (Bd), symbol rate – Émile Baudot
* Bark scale, psychoacoustical scale – Heinrich Barkhausen
* brewster (B), stress optic coefficient – David Brewster
* centimorgan (cM), recombination frequency – Thomas Hunt Morgan
* curie (Ci), radioactivity – Marie and Pierre Curie
* dalton (Da), atomic mass – John Dalton
* darcy (D), permeability, – Henry Darcy
* decibel (dB) dimensionless proportions and ratios, e.g. relative power levels – Alexander Graham Bell
* degree Fahrenheit (°F), temperature – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit
* degree Rankine (°R), temperature – William John Macquorn Rankine
* Dobson unit (DU), atmospheric ozone – Gordon Dobson
* erlang (E), dimensionless volume of telecommunications traffic – Agner Krarup Erlang
* fermi (fm), distance – Enrico Fermi
* hartley (Hart), information – Ralph Hartley
* hartree (Ha), energy – Douglas Hartree
* Hounsfield scale, radiodensity – Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield
* jansky (Jy), electromagnetic flux – Karl Jansky
* langley (ly), solar radiation – Samuel Pierpont Langley
* langmuir (L), gas exposure dose – Irving Langmuir
* neper (Np), relative power level – John Napier
* degree Öchsle (°Oe), density – Ferdinand Öchsle
* Rockwell scale (HR), indentation hardness – Stanley Rockwell
* röntgen (R), dosage of X-rays or gamma radiation – Wilhelm Röntgen
* Richter magnitude, earthquake power – Charles Francis Richter
* Scoville units, capsaicin content of chili peppers – Wilbur Scoville
* shannon (Sh), information – Claude Shannon
* siegbahn (xu), distance – Manne Siegbahn
* svedberg (S or Sv), sedimentation rate – Theodor Svedberg
* sverdrup (Sv), volume transport rate – Harald Sverdrup
* torr (Torr), pressure – Evangelista Torricelli
* troland (Td), luminance (human eye) – Leonard Troland

### Natural unit systems

* Planck units – Max Planck
* Stoney units – George Stoney

### No longer in use

* Mercalli intensity scale, earthquake effects – Giuseppe Mercalli
* degree Réaumur (°R), temperature – René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur
* degree Delisle (°D), temperature – Joseph-Nicolas Delisle
* degree Newton (°N), temperature – Isaac Newton
* degree Rømer (°Rø), temperature – Ole Rømer
* degree Baumé (°Bé), density – Antoine Baumé
* einstein (E), photochemistry – Albert Einstein
* poncelet (p), power – Jean-Victor Poncelet
* faraday (Fd), electrical charge – Michael Faraday