Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry

Information in the Green Book is synthesized from recommendations made by IUPAC, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), including recommendations listed in the IUPAP Red Book Symbols, Units, Nomenclature and Fundamental Constants in Physics and in the ISO 31 standards.

A concise four-page summary of the most important material in the Green Book was published in the July–August 2011 issue of Chemistry International, the IUPAC news magazine.

The Green Book is a direct successor of the Manual of Symbols and Terminology for Physicochemical Quantities and Units, originally prepared for publication on behalf of IUPAC's Physical Chemistry Division by M. L. McGlashen in 1969.

A better way is to use the factor-label method, which is closely related to dimensional analysis, and quantity calculus explained in sections 1.1 and 7.1 of this compilation.

Section 1.3 explains the rules for writing scientific symbols and names, for example, where to use capital letters or italics, and where their use is incorrect.