Scott has made a very important point, which I have often tried to pound
into editors and textbook authors, to no avail: SI is really more "English"
than "French." Of the 30 SI units, the great majority were either named by
or for Anglo-American scientists, or are longstanding "English"
units--usually with no competitors--that people don't realize are metric
(second, hertz, volt, ampere, ohm, candle, lumen, lux, radian, mole, etc.),
or were developed under the leadership of British or Americans (BAAS in
1870s, Chicago electrical conference in 1880s), or at the very least have
long been familiar on all sorts of household products (L, mm, g). It is
truly an international system. Everyone contributed. There are really very
few SI units that most Americans have a "discomfort level" with (kg, km, cm,
m, �C) and shun in favor of WOMBAT.
Ironically, the major defects of SI were inherited either from traditional
Babylo-English-Euro units (the second) or from the original French metric
system (the irregularity of the kilogram, size of the meter, non-coherence
of liter, prefix names, names with too many syllables, etc.). One could even
argue--with all due respect to the French--that SI would be a much better
and more coherent system if it hadn't been based on the metric system!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of Scott Clauss
> Sent: 2000 December 1 Friday 12:07
> To: U.S. Metric Association
> Subject: [USMA:9484] SI is English!
>
>
> I have gotten tired of hearing the British and Americans say that SI is
> French, and isn't their system. This morning while looking at torque
> wrenches it stuck me as odd that they advertize them as using "English and
> metric" units, but the metric units were newton-meters. I thought is was
> silly saying Newton wasn't English, so I made this little table.
> Appears SI
> is more UK than anything else. What did I miss, and did I get anything
> wrong?
>
> meter From the Latin metrum and the Greek metron, both
> meaning "measure."
> kilogram From chilioi, the Greek word for a thousand + the
> Latin gramma,
> which was a small weight similar to the English grain
> second the second division of the hour, latin secundus
> ampere French physicist Andr�-Marie Amp�re
> kelvin English (Scottish?) mathematician and
> physicist William Thomson,
> later Lord Kelvin
> mole named by W. Ostwald, a German Chemist, from
> MOLekulargewicht.
> candela From the Latin word for "candle."
> radian named by James Thomson, brother of Lord
> Kelvin, latin radius.
> steradian from the Greek stereos, solid + radian
> hertz German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
> newton English mathematician, and physicist Isaac Newton
> pascal French mathematician Blaise Pascal
> joule British physicist James Prescott Joule
> watt British engineer James Watt
> coulomb French physicist, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
> volt Italian scientist Count Alessandro Volta
> farad British physicist Michael Faraday
> ohm German physicist Georg Simon Ohm
> siemens German electrical engineer Werner von Siemens
> weber German physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber
> tesla (Croatian- (or Serbian-?))American electrical
> engineer Nikola Tesla
> henry American physicist Joseph Henry
> degree Celsius Swedish astronomer and physicist Anders Celsius
> lumen from Latin for light
> lux from Latin for light
> becquerel French physicist, Antoine-Henri Becquerel
> gray British physician L. H. Gray
> sievert Swedish physicist Rolf Sievert
> katal From "catalyst"?
>
> Totals:
> Non-proper name origin 10
> English/British 6
> German 4
> French 4
> American 2
> Swedish 2
> Italian 1
>
> If you add the quasi-SI units of talbot, bel and neper you pick
> up two more
> Brits and another American.
>
> After spending some time doing this I found a nice web page that has a
> similar list with pictures of the men (yes they're all men) involved.
> http://indykfi.atomki.hu/indyKFI/MT/orig_si.htm
> Quick what metric derived, but not SI, unit is named after a woman?
>
> And on a off topic, what is the difference between British and English? I
> suppose they used to swing swords at each other because of the
> distinction,
> but in America at least in modern times the distinction has faded.
>
> Since this is non-HTML the columns may get messed up in transit.
>
> Cheers,
> Scott C
>
>
