ISO 31

ISO 31
Name	ISO 31
Title	ISO 31
Status	Withdrawn and superseded
Organization	International Organization for Standardization
First published	1975
Replaced by	ISO/IEC 80000

ISO 31 was a set of international standards for quantities and units prepared by the International Organization for Standardization and adopted in the 1970s to harmonize scientific, technical, and engineering practice across institutions such as United Nations, European Union, International Electrotechnical Commission, International Bureau of Weights and Measures and national bodies like National Institute of Standards and Technology, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Bureau International des Poids et Mesures. It provided a structured vocabulary and notation used by practitioners at CERN, MIT, Harvard University, Oxford University, and in publications by Nature (journal), Science (journal), and IEEE. The standard influenced regulatory frameworks in countries including United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan.

Overview

ISO 31 aimed to standardize symbols, names, and definitions for physical quantities across disciplines practiced at institutions such as Royal Society, Max Planck Society, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, and Indian Institute of Science. The set related to measurement systems referenced work by the Comité International des Poids et Mesures, Metre Convention, International System of Units, SI (International System of Units) committees, and drew on conventions used at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Imperial College London, California Institute of Technology, Stanford University. ISO 31 was intended for adoption by publishers such as Cambridge University Press, Elsevier, Springer Nature, and standards users including Airbus, Boeing, Siemens, General Electric.

Scope and Structure

The scope covered base quantities and derived quantities used in fields associated with organizations like International Astronomical Union, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, World Meteorological Organization, International Civil Aviation Organization, and agencies such as European Space Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Structurally, ISO 31 consisted of multiple parts addressing topics familiar to researchers at Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Tokyo, and laboratories like Sandia National Laboratories and Brookhaven National Laboratory. The parts mirrored subject divisions found in textbooks by authors affiliated with Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, McGraw-Hill, and professional societies including American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Units and Symbols Standardized

ISO 31 standardized names and symbols for quantities used by practitioners at CERN, Fermilab, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and for constants cited in works by Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Niels Bohr, and Michael Faraday. It specified unit symbols such as those for length, mass, time, electric current, temperature, amount of substance, luminous intensity—terms employed in curricula at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Caltech, ETH Zurich, University of Cambridge—and in handbooks like those published by IUPAC, IUPAP, BIPM. The standard also addressed notation for derived units used in reports by World Health Organization, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and technical dossiers from Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman.

History and Revisions

Developed in the context of postwar coordination among bodies such as United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, League of Nations successor institutions, and committees including ISO Technical Committee 12, ISO 31 first appeared in 1975 and underwent revisions influenced by debates at meetings involving delegates from United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, Japan, and experts from Royal Society of London, Académie des sciences, National Academy of Sciences (United States). Subsequent amendments paralleled work on the SI (International System of Units), collaborations with IEC, and culminated in replacement by the ISO/IEC 80000 series after coordination with International Telecommunication Union and national standards organizations like Standards Australia and Canadian Standards Association.

Adoption and Influence

Adoption of ISO 31 shaped editorial policies at journals like The Lancet, Cell (journal), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and influenced textbooks used at Sorbonne University, Heidelberg University, Uppsala University. Industries from energy firms such as Shell and ExxonMobil to manufacturers like Toyota, Volkswagen integrated its conventions into technical documentation, while regulatory authorities such as European Commission, Food and Agriculture Organization and national ministries referenced its guidance in standards and legislation. International projects including Large Hadron Collider, International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, Human Genome Project, and Global Positioning System engineering benefited from unified unit usage endorsed by ISO 31.

Criticism and Limitations

Critics from institutions such as Royal Society, American Mathematical Society, Association for Computing Machinery and commentators in outlets like Scientific American, Nature (journal), New Scientist argued that ISO 31 had ambiguities, regional variants, and inflexibilities compared with conventions promoted by IUPAC, IUPAP, BIPM, prompting calls for clearer treatment of prefixes, pluralization, and compound units; these debates involved representatives from European Space Agency, NASA, JAXA, and standards committees across United Nations bodies. Limitations included legacy notations in older standards at British Standards Institution, Deutsches Institut für Normung, and transitional issues for software projects at Microsoft, Apple Inc., Google that eventually motivated the move to the ISO/IEC 80000 framework.

Category:International standards