Names and symbols

[solanpolarn]

I read this mini problem in my copy of Ny Teknik (="New Technology") last night, and thought it was fun so I am sharing it here. The article is in Swedish, since the paper is a Swedish one, so I will give a translation for those of you who don't speak Swedish

Comments

[tayefeth]

My husband and I came up with seven before resorting to tables...

[tayefeth]

When resorting to tables, we got out to fifteen... I suspect that the puzzle writer didn't intend to include Terameters and the like.

[solanpolarn]

No, professor Grimvall says in his 'solution' that "if you allow prefixes, you get even more examples, such as megagrams: magnesium for Mg". Another possible extension he suggests is to ignore the case of the letters, in which case there are apparently a further nine ("at least").