2002-03-07 It's the old trick of making something seem like more than it really is that is the reason we have all of these units. Do you think the electric company wants you to know that a joule of gas energy costs less than a joule of electrical energy? Of course not! They want you to heat your house with electrical energy. So, why do they want to make it easy for the consumer to compare?
And with autos, the use of the horse power makes it seem like your car has more power then if they had to use kilowatts. I'm sure instructors in metric countries also have the same problem. Don't forget, you still have the calorie and/or Calorie per minute and/or hour, versus the metric horsepower (PS or CV) in addition to the watt. There maybe more. Not everyone is using SI yet. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "James R. Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, 2002-03-07 11:55 Subject: [USMA:18601] Re: Metrication and goal setting > Duncan Bath wrote: > > > > This whole business of 'power' must be mystifying to members of the > > general public. They read (or hear) of h.p., W, kW, Btu/hr and so on. The > > incentive to really come to grips with this technical stuff must be pretty > > well blunted from day 1. > > Duncan > > I cannot sufficiently express how frustratingly difficult it is to > teach students that the concept of power crosses into many areas: > electrical, mechanical, thermal, etc. For American students, an obvious > source of confusion is the plethora of units that are commonly used, as > you have put it above, Duncan. Indeed, they sometimes try to tell me > that "these powers are different" on the basis of the differing units. I > wonder how my experience compares to that of instructors in physics > classrooms in metricated countries. > > Jim > > -- > 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 >
