Please pass to Mr. Andrew Bridges Dear Mr. Bridges, Your AP Wire story, "Astronomers Find Solar System Body", would have fit in nicely with my Intro. Astronomy course currently in progress except for one thing. We are in the semester that studies the solar system but we have done so in SI units. Your article used miles. Therefore I will not cite this article in class. My students at this liberal arts college are majoring in religion, business, elementary education, political science, and so forth. Many are taking this course only because of a core curriculum requirement. Yet, not once, have we used miles to describe distances in this course; they handle kilometers with ease and they have a feel for its size, based in part on their familiarity with 5 km runs and the like. Many of them have stated that they find SI units easier to use than the hodgepodge of units used in America's past. Further the AP Stylebook states "metric units should be included in a story when they are relevant", as is the case here. The International Astronomical Union specifies the use of meters, suitably prefixed, as the prefered unit. The mile is not an option. Even the Stylebook cites the kilometer as being well known to Americans (35th ed., p 157). In the future, please use metric units when writing about astronomical matters. If you feel the need, follow the suggestion of the Stylebook to include non-metric equivalents in parentheses. I noticed that you provided a link to Lowell Observatory (www.lowell.edu) at the bottom of your artticle and also that their prior press releases use a mixed bag of units. If their press release for this observation was the basis for your decision to use miles instead of kilometers, please pass this on to them. Also, please remind them that a site in the edu domain is expected to further education, not to hinder it. All of their materials should help Americans become familiar with international units of measurement as well. For that matter, so should yours. regards, James R. Frysinger -- James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston 10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street 843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424 http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644
