the unit of measurement
101absorbance unit — (AU) a logarithmic unit used to measure optical density, the absorbance of light transmitted through a partially absorbing substance. If T is the percentage of light transmitted, then the absorbance is defined to be log10 T absorbance units.… …
102enzyme unit — (U or EU) a unit used by biochemists to measure the activity of enzymes, which are proteins produced by living cells to cause or facilitate necessary chemical reactions within the cell. One enzyme unit is the quantity of enzyme needed to cause …
103international unit — (IU) a unit used to measure the activity (that is, the effect) of many vitamins and drugs. For each substance to which this unit applies, there is an international agreement specifying the biological effect expected with a dose of 1 IU. Other… …
104volume unit — (vu) a unit used in telecommunications to describe the volume of a radio or television signal carrying complex information such as speech or music. These waves vary wildly in amplitude in order to represent the message they carry, so it is… …
105desiccant unit — (DU) a unit measuring the amount of a drying agent. One desiccant unit is the amount of the drying agent that can absorb 3 grams of water at a relative humidity of 20% and 6 grams at a relative humidity of 40%, when the temperature is between… …
106Siegbahn unit — another name for the X unit, a unit of distance used for describing the wavelength of x rays. The name honors the Swedish physicist Karl M.G. Siegbahn (1886 1978), who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1924 for his work in x ray… …
107solar neutrino unit — (snu) a unit used by astrophysicists to measure the rate at which neutrinos from the Sun are detected on Earth. Neutrinos are elementary particles with no charge and little or no mass (in 1999 it was reported that neutrinos do have a small… …
108strontium unit — (SU) a unit of radioactive concentration used to measure the presence of the very dangerous radioisotope strontium 90 in the body or elsewhere. In the body or the environment, strontium atoms tend to replace or become mixed with atoms of… …
109bone-dry unit — (bdu) a unit used in the forest products industry to measure bulk products such as wood chips. One bone dry unit is a volume of wood chips (or whatever) that would weigh 2400 pounds (1.0886 metric ton) if all the moisture content were removed …
110Strong-Cobb Unit — (SC) an ad hoc unit of force previously used to measure the hardness of tablets in the pharmaceutical industry. The Strong Cobb test machine applied pressure using a hand operated air pump, and the hardness was read on a gauge marked in 30… …
