In an age when reality television appearances, leaked sex tapes and tickling can be routes to celebrity, a student at University of California, Davis, has entered the spotlight through a scientific endeavor.
Well, maybe a quasi-scientific endeavor.
Austin Sendek, a sophomore physics major at Davis, has achieved a sort of modest fame in recent weeks for creating a Facebook group petitioning authorities to make “hella” a scientifically accepted prefix along the lines of “kilo” and “mega.”
Hella, he proposed, would stand for 10 followed
by 27 zeroes. Currently, the largest accepted prefix is “yotta,” which is 10 with 24 zeroes. Mr. Sendek found it insufficient.
“In our world of increasing physical awareness and experimental precision, this number is no longer a satisfactory ‘upper bound’ in scientific nomenclature,” he wrote in the Facebook petition. “The analysis of many physical phenomena reveals natural quantities in excess of 27 orders of magnitude, a number which is currently ignored by the SI system.” (SI is the International System of Units.)
The catch is that “hella” is also slang in Northern California for “a lot.” Think “mad” in urban argot. Or “wicked” in New England. Mr. Sendek, who is from Siskiyou County, near Mount Shasta, has said that his proposal is a tribute to his dear Northern California.
As of Thursday, the ranks of the Facebook group exceeded 50,000. Most, presumably, were not moved to join out of scientific interest.
“I thought ‘hella’ came North from SoCal with Gwen Stefani,” one member mused. (Ms. Stefani, the pop singer who hails from Anaheim, released the 2002 hit single “Hella Good.”)
The Facebook group’s popularity surged so sharply that Mr. Sendak began to appear this week on local news. At the beginning of March, The Sacramento Bee took note. On Thursday, he was covered on the Time magazine’s Web site. And CNN carried the story.
As much as the tale is a testament to the populist power of social media, there is a timeless quality about how hometown (or regional) pride lifted one of its own to greater heights.
“Long live the Norcal ‘hella’!!!” was one huzzah among many left in the comments on the group page.
“I definitely didn’t expect it to blow up as much as it did,” Mr. Sendek said by telephone on Thursday. “But basically people from NorCal feel like hella is our word, and it’s sort of a way to show their NorCal pride.”
And although he sounded free of the affectations of celebrity in a telephone interview, Mr. Sendak keeps a record of all the news outlets that have covered the story on his blog. He also said he had become fluent with his talking points after reciting factoids to countless reporters.
When asked how the prefix might be applied, Mr. Sendek blithely lobbed back a few choice pearls of astronomical data.
“The diameter of the universe is roughly a hellameter,” Mr. Sendak said. He solemnly added, “The hellameter is an incredibly long distance.”
The mass of the earth, Mr. Sendak said, “is about six hellagrams, and the power of the sun is 0.3 hellawatts.”
Mr. Sendek and The Sacramento Bee have already contacted Ian Mills of the University of Reading, who is part of the body that advises the International Committee for Weights and Measures in France.
“I like the humorous touch of your suggestion of the prefix “hella” for 10^27!” The Bee quoted Professor Mills, a chemist, as saying. “I will mention this exchange at our next CCU meeting, and I’m sure it will be received with smiles — but I doubt that it will go further!”
Opposition also came from those in the Bay Area who rejected the claim that the term was universally beloved here.
Camelia Checeanu, a Romanian who has lived in the United States for five years, insisted that “hella” was confusing and barely even a word.
“It’s another one of those ambiguous words Californians use when they really skirt around putting an actual tag on an issue,” Ms. Checeanu, who works in public relations in San Francisco, said in an interview. “So instead of saying this bad thing happened or this great thing happened to me, they just say ‘hella,’ and you’re like, ‘was that good, or was that bad?’ ”
Josh Keller, a writer and Web designer in San Francisco who was born and raised in the Bay Area, took a somewhat patrician view.
“It’s already along that path to, you know, bro-iness,” said Mr. Keller in an interview. “Let the people from Southern California have their Valley Girl phrases. I’m fine with actual words.”
Still, by the time Mr. Keller reacted to the story, the news had already traveled far beyond the San Francisco Bay.
It has caught the attention of overseas news outlets, like The Daily Telegraph, to the apparent bewilderment of British readers.
After the publication reported on the story on its Web site last week, one commenter, “Alban,” ruminated whimsically in parsed verse:
This is a monster number.
Only mad scientists and even crazier politicians will find a use for it.
The rest of us can only tremble in fear and look on in amazement.
So we should call it one Godzillion.