I would like to know what part of Canada you saws those kPa pumps in. I've only ever
seen PSI.
When weather is forecast in Canada they tend to not mention the units of pressure and
just post the value. Fortuneately this is exclusively kPa.
Similarly windchill is also quoted without the units of W/m�, Celsius is left off
temperature and km/h is left off of wind speed. Units are only given for snow or rain
fall in cm or mm respectively.
i.e. "The current temperature is -15, with winds 20 out of the north west with the
windchill at 1600, so make sure to bundle-up. The pressure is 100.3 and falling. We've
received 15 cm of snow in the last 24 hours and there's another 10 cm expected
overnight."
greg
Saskatoon SK Canada
>>> "kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2000-11-12 20:00:19 >>>
2000-11-12
When I was in Singapore and Malaysia a few years ago, the tire pumps at the
gas stations were in kilopascals. I think they are that way in Canada too.
I think that any country that recently converted, the gauges will be in
"kPa". The USA is the only country still using psi. And you are right,
people call it pounds. I think most just look for the "pounds" on the tire
so they can set the pump to that value. If the pumps were in "kPa", people
would get use to those numbers just as easy.
Radio Shack sells a Pistol grip digital tire gage that goes from 6 to 100
psi for 12 $. I asked the clerk if it could be switched over to
kilopascals. He said no, and I told him I wouldn't waste 12 $ plus tax on a
product that was not metric friendly.
What pressure units are your students use to? Pascals is foreign to many
who are use to bars, atmospheres, kgf/cm^2, etc. I think old metric
countries are just hearing about pascals now. Can any of our friends
(present and past) from the Continent verify this?
John
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
Behalf Of Dennis Brownridge
Sent: Sunday, 2000-11-12 17:45
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:9155] RE: tire pressures
US auto tires give the pressure in kPa in first position with psi or PSI in
parentheses. This seems to be one of the few areas we are ahead of
the world
in using SI units. However, no one here pays the slightest attention to
them--virtually everyone refers to tire pressure in "pounds" or "pounds of
air." (Never mind that this makes no sense. I have queried students on this
and found that some actually think you could weigh the tire with
and without
air and figure how many "pounds of air" it contains).
Bicycle tires (virtually all made in Asia) usually give PSI and
BAR [sic] in
that order, although within very recent months I have seen a few
brands with
PSI and kPa.
Electric tire pumps are usually labeled in PSI and kg/cm� [meaning
kgf/cm�],
or PSI and bar if designed for bicycles. I have not yet seen one with kPa,
like the one Jim found. Gas station gauges are invariably labeled in PSI
only, although you can find a few cheap gauges with kPa too.
I am sure that as long as gauges and tires are labeled in psi, people will
use psi. Only the government can bring about a switch.
Curiously, psi does not seem to be well known outside the USA. My foreign
students will sometimes ask me what a "sigh" means (some have mistaken it
for the greek letter, psi).
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: 2000 November 12 Sunday 14:53
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Cc: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:9153] Re: discovery programme
>
>
> On Sun, 12 Nov 2000 17:36:34 +0000, you wrote:
>
> >'Big machines' programme on today seemed to be totally metric but I am
> >not sure about the quote for tyre pressures in kilograms per squatre
> >centimetre. Are these the normal units ?
>
> 'mbar' is more usual, Ian, but I have seen kg/cm2 on gauges.
>
> Chris
> --
> Metrication information: http://www.metric.org.uk/
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>
>
