John Doty wrote: > On May 20, 2009, at 2:36 PM, der Mouse wrote: > >>>> A ton of cooling is 12 Kbtu, about the heat of crystallization of >>>> one ton of water, per hour. >>>>> Why do engineers use so many whacky units? >>>> [...], tradition and convenience. >>> Good excuses for the masses. Not so good for engineering, which >>> depends on precise communication. >> Which measuring air conditioning capacities in tons provides. Just >> because it's disorienting to those who are acquainted with only other >> meanings of the word doesn't make it any less precise. > > It's poor communication. Specialized jargon. Language should > illuminate the issue to the widest possible audience. But here, even > to specialists, the language obfuscates, since using the same units > for heat and electrical energy would reveal the thermodynamic > efficiency of the technology. >
Depends on who you are dealing with. When I spec'd out a catheter manufacturing plant the construction guys as well as the architact looked at me with wrinkled foreheads when I started with kilowatts. "So what size unit goes where, then?" ... "Well, two five-ton units over here and we'll need another one over yonder." ... "Ah, ok, I think we can work that into the budget." Same in other professions. Taking it back four inches doesn't mean altitude in an aircraft ;-) -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list [email protected] http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
