Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by rafaelcosta 106 days ago
Is it just for me that `kmph` stood out? Seems like such a cursed way of saying kph or km/h.
2 comments

Why does kph sound like most cursed option. kilo per hour? Kilo what? kilowatt, kilogram? kilolitres? Well it is most likely in context, but still when I stop and think about it it feels icky.. I can accept p instead of /. But just entirely ignoring unit feels wrong... Also is speed of something slow ph?
Both kph and mph sort of follow a pattern of the first letter of each word in the unit being spelled out, but kmph reads ambiguously as k(mph) or (km)ph.

Of course, anyone caring about correctness would use the SI unit symbol, which is m/s.

km is very standard abbreviation for kilometers. Like anyone outside the US would recognize that and consequently kmph. Of course, km/h is very recognizable and k/h looks like nonsense. So I'd say kph is the objectively terrible option.
yes, I think it's just the US/UK doing that, else people write km/h.