History
The hertz is named after the German physicist Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894), who made important scientific contributions to the study of electromagnetism. The name was established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1930. It was adopted by the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) (Conférence générale des poids et mesures) in 1960, replacing the previous name for the unit, cycles per second (cps), along with its related multiples, primarily kilocycles per second (kc/s) and megacycles per second (Mc/s), and occasionally kilomegacycles per second (kMc/s). The term cycles per second was largely replaced by hertz by the 1970s.
The term "gigahertz", most commonly used in computer processor clock rates and radio frequency (RF) applications, can be pronounced either /ˈɡɪɡəhɜrts/, with a hard /ɡ/ sound, or /ˈdʒɪɡəhɜrts/, with a soft /dʒ/ (see giga-#Pronunciation). The prefix "giga-" is derived directly from the Greek "γιγας" ("giant").
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—David Hume (1711–1776)