Alas, gentlemen, nobody drives from one town to the next, or even one business to the next, thinking of time in seconds or kiloseconds. (I use announcements of the time remaining in kiloseconds in my labs mostly because the shock of it gets their attention.)
Measurements should serve most people in terms that they relate to, or as closely as possible without generating stables of units as the inch to mile set has done. For driving in a car, most drivers think in terms of kilometers to travel and hours (or perhaps minutes) of time spent doing so, thus kilometers per hour are appropriate. For landing spaceships gently but firmly on the moon, most drivers think in terms of meters to the surface and seconds of time and thus meters per second are appropriate. Distances to towns in kilometers and to turns, exits, hazards, etc. in kilometers and then in meters makes intuitive sense to me. I really like the idea posted here earlier (John kPa?) about dual speedometer scales with km/h primary and m/s secondary. Coupled with the obvious advantages of this and decimal odometers I think it's quite possible for that to catch on. If we set about telling people that they have to change the way that they think along with the way that they measure, we'll never sell the SI. And, no, most of them are not numerate enough to easily figure out how many finger joints they have with 8 fingers at 3 joints per finger unless they stop whatever else they are doing at the time, such as walking or chewing gum. I see some of the smarter ones in my college classes and it scares me to think about who didn't get in. We have to refrain from becoming a numerically elite group of people and think about how we can relate to the rest of our fellow citizens. After all, those are most of the people that we have to sell the SI to. Let's make their life easier, not harder by metricating. Jim Gene Mechtly wrote: > > Thanks, Stan, for giving a concrete example of the safety advantage > of speed limits posted in m/s. > .......................................... > On Wed, 14 Nov 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Speed in m/s has a safety aspect to it. It takes a typical driver > > one second to notice danger, remove foot from the gas pedal, place it > > on the brake pedal and apply a force. At the typical highway speed, > > the car has traveled 30 m in that one second (several car lengths for > > those not adverse in m). > > > > Posting speed limits in m/s could make drivers more aware of the safe distance. >They might even find it handy: in 1 ks, they would travel 30 km. > > Stan Jakuba > > www.metric1.net/sijakub -- Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!" James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/ 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789
