"Hooper, Bill and or Barbara" wrote:
> > The cm and cL are two of the most useful units in everyday-metric system.
>
> I don't argue that they are not used at all but only that they are less used
> than the powers of 1000. Gustaf's opinion is that they are among "the most
> useful units". My personal opinion is that SI would be better without them.
NO. Then it will be a stiff scientific language. People will never like it. I
wouldn't. Who knows, maybe Europe wouldn't be metric today if those limitations
were pushed for when the metric system was introduced.
> If the individual powers of ten (like 10 and 100) are so useful, why isn't
> that pattern used throguhout SI? It is not. It stops with 10 and 100 (and
> one-tenth and one-hundredth.) From 1000 on up (and down) all steps between
> prefixes are 1000.
Well, in the same way hundred-thousand (100 000) doesn't have its own word. It
is Hundred and Thousand.
Since the fractions around the baseunit are the most used, they deserve there
own names.
> A system of prefixes that consist only of powers of 1000 is simpler than one
> that consists of some powers of 1000 and also some other multipliers like 10
> and 100.
It is not simpler to use. It might be worth to learn those four extra prefixes
if you are going to use the metric system for a whole lifetime. You would
probably have to learn them anyway.
Then there is the accuracy. Should you measure everything exactly to the
millimeter all the time? The accuracy of +-1mm or +-1mL cant't be
kept in all situations. That is totally unecessary.
