Becquerel Becquerel The becquerel (; symbol: Bq) is the SI derived unit of radioactivity. One becquerel is defined as the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. The becquerel is therefore equivalent to an inverse second, s. The becquerel is named after Henri Becquerel, who shared a Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie in 1903 for their work in discovering radioactivity. As with every International System of Units (SI) unit named for a person, the first letter of its symbol is uppercase (Bq). However, when an SI unit is spelled out
Siemens (unit) of Units (SI)" refers to the mho as an "unaccepted special name for an SI unit", and indicates that it should be strictly avoided. The SI term "siemens" is used universally in science and often in electrical applications, while "mho" is still used in some electronic contexts. The inverted capital omega symbol, while not an official SI abbreviation, is less likely to be confused with a variable than the letter S when doing algebraic calculations by hand, where the usual typographical distinctions (such as italic for variables and Roman for unit names) are difficult to maintain. Likewise, it is difficult