Is uf the new mfd?

[smoker76]

I know I should know this but I expected there must be a difference in those capacitor ratings. Is there no performance difference? Just physical size?

[mhardy6647]

u is the 'transliteration' of the Greek letter "mu", which is the abbreviation for 'micro'. "m" for reasons I never understood, was sometimes used to sub for "mu" to indicate micro, even though it is the abbreviation for "milli" (i.e., 10^-3).

F is Farad, so, yes, uF is microfarad.

uuF, or mmF, of course, is micro-microfarad, or picofarad (pF); pico = 10^-12. "micro-mikes", in the olden days...

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by mhardy6647

u is the 'transliteration' of the Greek letter "mu", which is the abbreviation for 'micro'.

See the Greek letter "M" in the Greek alphabet:

http://www.mathekiste.de/griechischesalphabet.htm

u for Greek "my" is not correct, but it is similar to "X" for Greek "Chi", while the corresponding Greek letter for Latin "X" is "Xi".

Eckhard

[drspiff]

Yes, μf is the same as mfd (MicroFaraD). And yes, there is a significant size difference between old and new electrolytic caps. There are some pictures floating around showing the difference in size between old and new caps. Check out this thread:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=63359

[wa2ise]

Over in Europe, they also like to use nF for nanoFarad. 10^-9, or 1000pF or 0.001 uF. Another thing they like to do there, and I like as well, is that they'll use the "n" or the "u" in place of a decimal point. 4n7 = 4700pF. Decimal points tend to get lost, which is also why most everyone uses a leading 0 in front of things like 0.0047uF

[mhardy6647]

Thanks for showing a true "mu", in your post, Dr! I was too lazy...

[birddog]

mhardy, delihaus 'n I are gonna get together on the 10th in Boston, are you in? Deli 'n I have med appts at the same place on the 10th, maybe do lunch or something?

[mhardy6647]

I'll check the calendar & PM youse guys.

[birddog]

Very good!

[mhardy6647]

That is correct, that's why I said "transliteration" in quotes (inverted commas, if you will). Greek "mu" is the Latin "m", but it looks a bit like the Latin "u", so we tend to use u's for mu's. :-)

[drspiff]

aren't "mu's" what you get from a Holstein?

[yagosaga]

Originally Posted by drspiff

aren't "mu's" what you get from a Holstein?

Aah, we have "mu's" too in Lower Saxony here