SI Units Revision playing cards

Published February 04, 2023 • Updated May 09, 2023

SI Units revision playing cards, United Kingdom.

This educational pack, published in 2010 by Middlesex University, was designed by Dr Stephen Prior and colleagues, of the University’s Department of Engineering and Information Sciences. It was intended to serve as a reference of all SI Base Units and derived units for engineering and physical sciences students at all levels.

Each suit is themed: energy and electricity (diamonds), Newtonian mechanics (clubs), magnetic and physical properties (spades), chemical, thermodynamics & radioactivity (hearts). The 2 jokers provide useful revision information. The backs are not identical and show different symbols and equations on each card which suggests that the pack is not primarily intended for card play. See the box►

Above: SI Units revision playing cards designed by Dr Stephen Prior and colleagues, published in 2010 by Middlesex University.

For information: SI units constitute the metric system that is used universally as a standard for measurements (for length, mass, time, electric current, thermodynamic temperature, amount of substance, luminous intensity). SI derived units are units of measurement derived from the seven base units. For more details see Wikipedia: International System of Units►

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By Peter Burnett

United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022

I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.

• Russian Playing Cards

Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.

Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.