2000-11-20
I would say 99 % of the errors are ignorance and 1 % are carelessness.
Don't forget, the US never had a planned and organized conversion. I'm sure
many schools that teach metric to students don't know or follow the rules of
SI. Many Americans don't see SI as something better or easier that FFU,
just different. They apply the same inconsistencies to SI that they do to
FFU.
Everyone applies there own rules and preferences rather than following the
official rules. The official rules not only make it easier to understand,
but eliminates many problems and confusing situations. I wonder sometimes
if a law suit would arise over the misunderstanding of a unit symbol, in
which someone was injured, if a jury would determine guilt based on
following the rules.
"L" is accepted now for litre, as a "l" (ell) can be mistaken for the number
1. Since some people write one litre as 1l instead of 1 l, how would you
know they meant 0ne litre and not eleven? Whether it is written as 1L or 1
L, it can not mean eleven.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
Behalf Of Adrian Jadic
Sent: Monday, 2000-11-20 09:53
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:9252] Usage of L for liter abbreviation
Does anyone know what is the story behind this capitalization?
I know that the SI tolerates the use of capital L for liter but I see more
and more attempts to use capital letters for metric abbreviations
in the US.
Too many packages display the milliliter as a megaliter; the sport events
are in KM rather than km (that is when they are not just in K).
In SI, capitals are used only for units that represent a proper
name (Joule,
Ampere, Hertz etc.). Is there an objective reason for using L instead of l
in North America?
Thanks,
Adrian
