Responding to both of Adrian's posts on this subject. At 04:20 PM 1/30/2002 -0600, Adrian Jadic wrote: >You're in denial Bill! If they are not units of measure what are they? Can >you give me a definition for units of measure? What is the difference >between BTU and flushes?
I think Bill has a very valid point. Your comment helps illustrate why: >I was taught that when I build a tool I classify it by the strength of the >material, or by the dimensional characteristics and not by how many holes it >can drill per minute. Now, if I am buying a drill, I would care a lot more about how many holes it could drill per minute than it's dimensional characteristics. So what is wrong with "units" that are useful in the real world, even if they are not somehow tied to fundamental units of measure? Take your toilet example. Switch from "gallons per flush" to "liters per flush" and you have a useful measure with a metric component. No, it is not entirely metric but it provides information the person specifying it needs to know. He may need this info a lot more than (for example) "fills at 50 mL/s." Another example: laser printers are generally rated in "pages per minute." A rather useful figure, and pretty much unrelated to metric or colloquial systems. Adrian, how would you rate a toilet, or a laser printer? Jim Elwell P.S. I've seen the LPF (liters per flush) on many toilets and urinals in the USA.
