text: The Mach number is named after the physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach according to a proposal by the aeronautical engineer Jakob Ackeret in 1929. The word Mach is always capitalized since it derives from a proper name, and since the Mach number is a dimensionless quantity rather than a unit of measure, the number comes after the word Mach; the second Mach number is Mach2 instead of 2Mach (or Machs). This is somewhat reminiscent of the early modern ocean-sounding unit mark (a synonym for fathom), which was also unit-first, and may have influenced the use of the term Mach. In the decade preceding faster-than-sound human flight, aeronautical engineers referred to the speed of sound as Machs number, never Mach 1'.