Goodbye Volt? Italy Wants to Rewrite One of the Most Used Units of Measurement in the World

The unit of measurement for electrical voltage may one day be called "volta" instead of "volt." The proposal comes from Italy and was presented in recent days by Alessio Butti, Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council with a mandate for Technological Innovation, during a meeting in Paris with Annette Koo, the Director General of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), the international organization that oversees the International System of Units (SI).

The initiative aims to honor Alessandro Volta, the physicist from Como considered one of the pioneers of the study of electricity and the inventor of the electric battery. According to what the Government claims, the term "volt" would represent an exception among the units of measurement dedicated to great scientists, as it does not fully preserve the surname of the inventor to whom it is dedicated.

Currently, the volt, identified by the symbol "V," is the unit of measurement for electrical potential difference and is universally used in scientific, industrial, and technological fields. Its designation has been in effect for over a century and constitutes one of the fundamental elements of the International System.

The Italian proposal is based on a historical and terminological observation. Many other units of the SI indeed maintain the full surname of the celebrated scientist: the ampere derives from André-Marie Ampère, the newton from Isaac Newton, the watt from James Watt, and the hertz from Heinrich Rudolf Hertz. In the case of the volt, however, the surname Volta has been adapted by omitting the final vowel.

According to Butti, the change would not only have a linguistic value but would represent a historical and cultural recognition towards a scientist who significantly contributed to the development of modern electrical technologies. The initiative also falls within the framework of enhancing the figure of Volta in view of 2027, the year which will mark the 200th anniversary of his death.

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures represents one of the reference bodies for defining and preserving international metrological standards. Historically, it has also safeguarded the physical samples used for defining the base units, such as the famous platinum-iridium cylinder that until 2019 served as the reference for the kilogram, before the adoption of the definition based on Planck's constant.

However, it remains to be seen what the concrete developments of the proposal might be. A change to the nomenclature of one of the most widely used units in the world would indeed require the consensus of the international scientific community and an assessment of the potential consequences on standardization, technical documentation, and information systems that refer to SI units.

At present, no formal review process of the International System has been initiated, but the Italian proposal opens a discussion that intertwines historical, scientific, and symbolic aspects. The declared aim is to reach the celebrations of 2027 with a more explicit recognition of Alessandro Volta's contribution to modern science and the evolution of electrical technologies that today power the digital world.