On 3 January 2014 17:26, Ray Mansell <[email protected]> wrote:

> Indeed, my post was intended to be tongue-in-cheek. My British sense of
> humour often gets me in trouble here in the US.
>
> They don't have any humour there (hoping to get spelling right as an alien)

I missed my chance to respond on Friday which would be more appropriate,
but since our newspaper today reported "60 cm" of snow in a town near
Boston, I could not resist.

There's a lot of truth behind your initial response. By reducing the number
of different units we use, there is a suggestion of precision that may not
be founded. Our "60 cm" most likely was 2 feet, and does support the two
significant digits (especially since snow depth is uneven, and more where
you have to clean it). I like the idea that Norway use a special unit for
10 km distance, so you can express longer distance without suggesting
precision.

We should have qualifiers with 1 order of magnitude in between, not 3
orders. To avoid confusion with hex, lets start with "G" for 10, "H" for
100, etc.

Rob

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