I think that Mr John M. Steele makes an excellent point. I whole-heartedly agree with John on this. I make similar points in my January 2014 blog.
Here is a link: http://metricpioneer.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/long-scale-and-short-scale-how-much-is-a-billion-it-depends-where-you-live/ and three paragraphs near the end of that blog: A mile is the longest imperial unit and an inch is the shortest imperial unit, so a billion miles or a billionth of an inch is clearly a problematic way to measure anything in an international context. I think it is a mistake to limit our usage of SI units to this tiny range. That is, I think it is a mistake for people to refuse to take advantage of SI units larger than a kilometer and smaller than a centimeter; clearly, those people have enslaved themselves into thinking in scientifically outdated imperial units. The beauty of the International System of units or SI after its French initials is that one has the option to dispense with ever having to use any word for any number higher than thousand on the scale, which thankfully has only one definition everywhere on Earth. Using the SI, one can measure everything from the width of a tiny neutrino at 1 ym (one yoctometer) to the diameter of the observable universe at 880 Ym (eight hundred eighty yottameters) without ever using words for numbers that have different values in different places on Earth. ----- Message from "John M. Steele" <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> --------- Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 03:40:45 -0700 From: "John M. Steele" <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> Reply-To: "John M. Steele" <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> Subject: [USMA:54069] Re: New supplement to the SI Brochure To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
But gigameters, terameters, petameters, etc. are not. That's what prefixes are for, and they continue to a range that could handle the universe. The AU is approximately 149.6 Gm, the parsec about 30.86 Pm.------------------------- FROM: Eric L Shuman <ericlshu...@gmail.com> TO: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> CC: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> SENT: Friday, June 27, 2014 2:48 AM SUBJECT: [USMA:54068] Re: New supplement to the SI Brochure Because the numbers are beyond human comprehension. This part of my job requires me to provide some meaningful sense of proportion. Earth is 149 597 871 km from the Sun. That's our STARTING point. Meters, kilometers, miles, furlongs, parasangs and stadia are totally meaningless on the astronomical scale. On 26 June 2014 17:45, Harold_Potsdamer <harold_potsda...@cox.net> wrote:Why? Since the AU is fixed to the metre, why not just use the metre and its prefixes? FROM: Eric L Shuman[1] SENT: Thursday, 2014-06-26 15:31 TO: U.S. Metric Association[2] CC: U.S. Metric Association[2] SUBJECT: [USMA:54054] Re: New supplement to the SI Brochure Thanks for bringing this to my (our) attention! I use the astronomical unit in outreach work that I do, so this is good to be aware of. On 26 June 2014 07:36, James <j...@metricmethods.com> wrote:Dear Folks, The BIPM has issued a supplement to the SI Brochure. It alters the order of the base units in defining derived units (Tables 6 and 7), it reflects the recent IAU decision to define the astronomical year as a fixed and exact number, and it makes some updates reflecting the latest CODATA, among other things. http://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si_supplement_2014.pdf Best regards, Jim Frysinger -- James R. Frysinger 632 Stoney Point Mountain Road Doyle TN 38559-3030 (C) 931.212.0267[3] (H) 931.657.3107[3] (F) 931.657.3108[3]
----- End message from "John M. Steele" <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> ----- Links: ------ [1] mailto:ericlshu...@gmail.com [2] mailto:usma@colostate.edu [3] David Pearl www.MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917
