This is a fun Monday discussion. :-)
I did not say anything about decimal arithmetic, either for nor against.
I was discussing this fad called SI and how it was a standard looking
for a base. The fact that it uses base-10 arithmetic may add to it's
popularity, but that is only one small part of the 'standard'.
Tony Thigpen
Martin Packer wrote on 7/20/20 8:13 AM:
So you don't rate decimal arithmetic? :-) So how do you explain dollars
and cents? :-)
Cheers, Martin (GDAR)
Martin Packer
zChampion, Systems Investigator & Performance Troubleshooter, IBM
+44-7802-245-584
email: martin_pac...@uk.ibm.com
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From: Tony Thigpen <t...@vse2pdf.com>
To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Date: 20/07/2020 12:41
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: OOBOL and English was Re: Still COBOL After
All These Years?
Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU>
Wayne,
We are an independent sort of people. We don't blindly follow others
after the latest fad, like SI units. SI units are not really built on
something real, but instead are a unit that looked for a base item that
'fit' into the new perception of reality.
It is humorous that the meter was originally defined to be one ten
millionth of the distance between the North Pole and the Equator through
Paris. Or that the kilogram was originally defined as the mass of a
man-made artifact of platinum-iridium held in a specific laboratory in
France. It appears that the whole SI system was a system to make France
the center of the universe. :-)
Tony Thigpen
Wayne Bickerdike wrote on 7/20/20 12:50 AM:
Current international agreement for all new elements is to end them with
-ium.
Odd how the USA hangs on to impractical learnings. Even the UK moved to
SI
units while I was at school in the 1960s.
Took me a while to get used to a gallon that isn't a gallon and a pint
that
isn't a pint (16 oz vs 20 oz.). You also short changed the ton by 240
lbs.
And Webster, whilst described as an anglophile gave you center instead
of
centre, defense instead of defence...
Not sure why saying an abacus is a computer makes me insane:) The best
joker wore a mask.
On Mon, Jul 20, 2020 at 8:19 AM Tony Thigpen <t...@vse2pdf.com> wrote:
Personally, I prefer a more authoritative source than Google, but it is
almost the same story:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.merriam-2Dwebster.com_words-2Dat-2Dplay_aluminum-2Dvs-2Daluminium&d=DwICaQ&c=jf_iaSHvJObTbx-siA1ZOg&r=BsPGKdq7-Vl8MW2-WOWZjlZ0NwmcFSpQCLphNznBSDQ&m=BT2zj1sgx0Ufo7xAfOAn2evt5Ihizark8xEHfcPHsz4&s=d8pDAilSCrc1YYJmjeWxtvdn0nnvwLb91ZjhFuTbnY4&e=
Tony Thigpen
Bob Bridges wrote on 7/19/20 6:09 PM:
Because I know you were all breathlessly awaiting the verdict on the
great "aluminum"/"aluminium" controversy, I went to find more
information.
At
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__books.google.com_books-3Fid-3DYjMwAAAAYAAJ-26pg-3DPA201&d=DwICaQ&c=jf_iaSHvJObTbx-siA1ZOg&r=BsPGKdq7-Vl8MW2-WOWZjlZ0NwmcFSpQCLphNznBSDQ&m=BT2zj1sgx0Ufo7xAfOAn2evt5Ihizark8xEHfcPHsz4&s=LFMQJaJldrcYU7-Opl-zMJAqNhkfZwMUsGgs1X_N_kU&e=
you can find a
page in _Elements of Chemical Philosophy_ by Humphrey Davy (who first
isolated aluminum), published in 1812; here he talks about "aluminum"
(a
metal to be found in alumina, which in turn was processed from alum).
Wikipedia (
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Aluminium&d=DwICaQ&c=jf_iaSHvJObTbx-siA1ZOg&r=BsPGKdq7-Vl8MW2-WOWZjlZ0NwmcFSpQCLphNznBSDQ&m=BT2zj1sgx0Ufo7xAfOAn2evt5Ihizark8xEHfcPHsz4&s=gpcu8EXVajvDZsGWOQJp093GxumoNwb58qtlFORxwu4&e=
) says this about the
name:
"British chemist Humphry Davy, who performed a number of experiments
aimed to isolate the metal, is credited as the person who named the
element. In 1808, he suggested the metal be named alumium in an article
on
his electrochemical research which was published in Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society. This suggestion was criticized by
contemporary chemists from France, Germany, and Sweden, who insisted
the
metal should be named for the oxide, alumina, from which it would be
isolated. In 1812, Davy published a chemistry textbook in which he
settled
on the name aluminum, thus producing the modern name. However, its
spelling
and pronunciation varies: aluminum is in use in the United States and
Canada while aluminium is in use elsewhere."
That sounds plausible to me.
---
Bob Bridges, robhbrid...@gmail.com, cell 336 382-7313
/* It's ok to doubt your beliefs; but it's not ok to believe your
doubts. -Jim Snider, pastor, 2000-12-10 */
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Bridges [mailto:robhbrid...@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2020 17:34
Aha! Yet a third story; in this one Davy started out with "aluminum"
and the Europeans ~added~ the 'i'.
-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU]
On Behalf Of Joe Monk
Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2020 07:22
The British Scientist (Davy) who discovered ALUMINUM named it that. It
is
we Americans who are using the correct name ... the British press felt
that
it should be in line with sodium and potassium and thus added to the
spelling.
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