I didn't want it to come to this

[thebitterguy]

malliabu forced my hand.

[Poll #1059069]

Comments

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Giga- is SI notation indicating a billion of something, such as gigahertz or gigabytes.

I understand that the pronunciation can vary -- some pronounce a hard g as in game, while others use a soft g as in giant -- but the spelling is always G and not J, as far as I know.

[rentagurkha.livejournal.com]

Yes (http://www.bipm.org/en/si/prefixes.html).

giga WHAT?

[perich.livejournal.com]

seriously, who thinks it's "j"?

Re: giga WHAT?

[thebitterguy]

My co-worker Joe, aka malliabu.

Re: giga WHAT?

[scapersuse.livejournal.com]

Dr. Emmett Brown. ;)

Re: giga WHAT?

[sonjaaa.livejournal.com]

Yeah exactly! He pronounced the g like a soft g.

Re: giga WHAT?

[scapersuse.livejournal.com]

Actually, to be fair, he says "jigawatt", I have no idea how he spells it.

In other words, never mind. lol.

Re: giga WHAT?

[sonjaaa.livejournal.com]

It was pronounced like a j in Back to the Future, long before the prefix became standard usage in computing. The j pronunciation is not used nowadays. Presumably both were used in the path.

[cappadocius.livejournal.com]

jigga-what? jigga-who?

[inscrutable.livejournal.com]

That's EXACTLY what I thought! Damn, you beat me to it.

[queenie-writes.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to be different. So I picked the last option. Though it is Gigawatt's.

[deven-science.livejournal.com]

Okay look, technically it's gigawatt. Both in spelling, and in the predominantly accepted pronunciation. However! When being used in reference to Back to the Future, as it was with the use of the phrase "1.21 jiggawatts", then it is spelled (and pronounced) "jigga". This is to reference that the script had it spelled "jiggawatt", which is to say, incorrectly. While jiggawatt is an acceptable pronunciation, it is spelled gigawatt.

In summary, you used it in reference to Back to the Future, so it's jiggawatt. Use it in a science paper, and it's gigawatt.

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

A billiowatts.

[spross.livejournal.com]

ULTRA-MEGA-POWER!!!!

[etherlad.livejournal.com]

The story, according to the BTTF DVDs, is that the two Bobs (Zemeckis/Gale) had gone to an actual scientician scientist or professor or something at a local university to ask how much power lightning produced, or whatever. He told them it was a gigawatt, but pronounced it "jiggawatt."

So in order to make sure the actors pronounced it "correctly" (har) they put "jiggawatt" in the script.

Of course, after the movie came out, they found out that their professor actually pronounced it in a very non-standard manner, but by then it was too late.

[malliabu.livejournal.com]

mmmmmmmmm crow