why

[sculptor]

why
do some people call a millibar a hectopascal?

and
which word do you use?


...........................................
(I ain't completely confused yet----but I am working on it.)

 

[RainbowSingularity]

why
do some people call a millibar a hectopascal?

and
which word do you use?


...........................................
(I ain't completely confused yet----but I am working on it.)

milli is old system ?
hecto is new system ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_(unit)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal_(unit)

Meteorological observations typically report atmospheric pressure in hectopascals per the recommendation of the World Meteorological Organization. Reports in the United States typically use inches of mercury[3] or millibars,[4][5] in Canada these reports are given in kilopascals.[6]

 

[exchemist]

why
do some people call a millibar a hectopascal?

and
which word do you use?


...........................................
(I ain't completely confused yet----but I am working on it.)

The Pascal is the SI unit. The bar (1 bar = 10⁵ Pascals) is a non-SI metric unit.

So yes, 1 millibar = 100 Pascals.

I tend to think in terms of bar, but I'm old-fashioned. If you are taking a school examination in Europe, you need to use SI units or you lose marks.

 

[sculptor]

I prefer millibars----(it's more comfortable to say than hectopascal)
and it's on my barometer
as is cm/hg
meanwhile the local meteorologists use inches of mercury

 

[James R]

I guess the motivation for measuring pressure in bars is that the air pressure at sea level hovers near 1 bar.

For more accuracy, we can use millibars, which means weather reporters can talk about "pressure of 1013 millibars" rather than "1.013 bars".

But the standard SI unit of pressure is the Pascal, and 1 millibar is the same as 1 hectopascal. "Hecto-" is a standard SI prefix that means "one hundred". So, "1013 millibars" is the same as "1013 hecto-Pascals".