Word: efforts
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...Sendek is the brains behind a burgeoning Internet effort to make hella- an officially recognized scientific-unit prefix, representing the magnitude of 1.0x1027, expressed by the number 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. What started as a joke between a few of Sendek's friends has become hella popular, growing into the loftily named Facebook group "The Official Petition to Establish 'Hella-' as the SI Prefix for 10^27," comprising nearly 50,000 like-minded nerds and fans of NoCal parlance. (See the top 10 scientific discoveries...
...effort stems from the fact that many numbers - particularly large ones - don't have official names. Small ones are familiar - mega- is the officially recognized prefix for 1.0x106, or 1 million. Giga- is the prefix for 1.0x109, or 1 billion. But past 1.0x1024, or yotta-, there are no official names. (With one notable exception: 1.0x10100 was set aside as googol- in 1938 - long before being respelled by Larry Page and Sergey Brin 60 years later for Google, their upstart search engine...
...says. "We started thinking that it'd be pretty funny if a hellavolt was a real thing, or a hellameter or hellagram." Sendek started the Facebook group for his inside joke but says he was surprised to see it explode after a reporter from the Sacramento Bee discovered the effort. Since then, Sendek has advocated for his cause on radio shows from Canada to Australia, with articles about his effort appearing on the websites for ABC News, Fox News and the Telegraph. (See the 50 best inventions...
Until there's a scientific breakthrough or a change of heart from the powers that be, Sendek says he hopes to keep the effort moving. He plans on launching a website at hellapetition.com soon, and like any good Internet entrepreneur, he's trying to cash in on his viral success by selling T-shirts. "I've realized there's a pretty big nerd base out there," Sendek says. If nothing else, Sendek's quirky effort will be a hella good résumé line when he graduates from college...
Yesterday afternoon, the Crimson women’s tennis team sweltered beneath the warm Tampa sun in a losing effort against No. 20 South Florida (7-4). With the 5-2 defeat, No. 60 Harvard (6-5) ended its only trip to Florida this season with an even record after winning against Central Florida on Saturday...