On 08:41 PM 3/15/01 +1100, Les Grant said:
>On 14 Mar 2001, at 23:14, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:
>
> > To be sure. But I think Mr. McGrath missed the point. No one is
> > arguing that one must work in metric. Rather, the issue is the native
> > database units. We, as users, do not necessarily see these units. If
> > they were in metric as has been suggested, we could have exact
> > conversions; if they are in inches, conversions will always be
> > approximate.
>
>Perhaps I have missed something here but are you implying that
>conversion from metric is exact but conversion from imperial is
>approximate? 1 inch = 1000 mil = 25.4mm exactly, both ways.
Okay. 1000mil=25.4mm
How many mils is 1mm, in decimal form? (clever rational expressions are
invalid and will be counted as wrong)
(clue: (1/25.4)=???)
This, friend, is part of the problem. beyond a certain number of digits,
and for the sake of time and space budget, one must approximately the
conversion results, thereby introducing computational error. As with all
computational error, it adds up from inconsequential to problematic as the
number of repetitive terms increases.
aj
2.2 S E C O N D D R O P T O W E R
Andrew J Jenkins Electrical Engineer
National Center for Microgravity Research
NASA-Glenn Research Center MS 45-1
21000 Brookpark Rd, Cleveland OH 44135
(216) 433-5001 fax:433-3793
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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