This is a download from the BBC.
For more information and our terms of use, go to bbcworldservice.com podcasts this is the Keep your English up to date podcast from BBCLearningEnglish.com in this week's program, John Ato explores the origin, meaning and use of the prefix Heller.
Scientists are continually trying to count ever larger amounts and measure ever smaller quantities.
And as they push the boundaries of counting further outwards and add still more zeros to the end, they need names for their new numbers.
The standard approach to creating these is to add a prefix to an existing measurement word.
So a kilometer is a thousand meters and a nanosecond is a billionth of a second.
The latest additions to the official list of prefixes were made in 1991.
They were zeta, which denotes a number, followed by 21 naughts, and yotta, 24 naughts.
You'd have thought those would be big enough for anyone.
But now some scientists are saying they'd like a prefix for a number followed by 27 naughts.
That's a thousand trillion, trillion.
And a student from the University of California has started a petition on Facebook to get Heller officially accepted for the job.
What are his chances of success?
Not great.
The people who adjudicate on these things, like their prefixes to have a classical Latin or Greek origin Heller quote hardly be less classical.
It's American students slang for extremely so you might say it's hella cold today.
It probably comes from the phrase hell of a referring to an extraordinary example of something.
But it's certainly expressive.
And if the idea of a helimeter or a heligram appeals to you, get on that petition and sign.
That was the Keep your English up to Date podcast.