On May 23, 2008, at 6:21 AM, Rod Engelsman wrote:
I agree with metric on general principles but I believe they could
have made
it a bit neater. For instance if the basic unit of length had been
chosen so
that what is now a a decimeter would have been called the meter,
then the
basic unit of mass could have been a cube one (deci)meter on a side
then
what we now call a kilogram would have been the gram.
Actually, it is a recognized inconsistency in the SI that the basic
unit of mass is the kilogram, rather than the gram. In the 1790s,
there had been a plan to rename the kilogram the "grave" and the gram
the "milligrave", but, at the time of the revolution, the word "grave"
was deemed to be too similar to the German word "Graf", which means
"count" or "earl" ("Gräfin" meaning "countess"), and the plan was
dropped.
John W Kennedy
"When a man contemplates forcing his own convictions down another
man's throat, he is contemplating both an unchristian act and an act
of treason to the United States."
-- Joy Davidman, "Smoke on the Mountain"
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