a name established in 1958 by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for a system of units of electrical and magnetic quantities based on four units: the meter, the kilogram, the second, and the ampere. The system was named after the Italian electrical engineer and physicist G. Giorgi, who in 1901 was the first to propose the system. However, the system is more widely known by a second name, taken from the initial letters of the basic units—the MKSA system of units, which was established by the IEC at the same time as the first name.