I do not support the proliferation of all kinds of 'made up' units, but I think that in certain cases they are unavoidable and even practical. And to me the Q is exactly such a case.
If you see the trash the printing industry uses today: all British, American and old-French ifp units and then look at the Q proposal, then I insist that the Q is a vast improvement. And I want to see progress first, even if it is not theoretically perfect. When I am at work with Word or any other word processor I *have* to use the US ifp unit point. No way around it. The Q and the millimeter would replace a vast array of outlandish units. Software using the Q for submultiples and the millimeter everywhere else would also rid us of those horrible 'metric' options we see so often nowadays, 209.9 mm instead of 210 mm, 'metric' rulers with 2.54 cm increments etc., etc. And also goodbye to the dpi. The Q should NOT become an SI unit! Regard it as a *module*. These are used in many industries anyway. As for the mmHg, horsepower, calorie, atmosphere, the sooner they go, the better. Good riddance. The mmHg (and the Fahrenheit scale) still feature too often on household barometers and thermometers. Alas, for the medical sector the mmHg used to measure blood pressure is sacred. Its abolition met such resistance that it has now become a unit which is indefinitely recognized. The claim is that adopting the pascal would endanger human life. The same claim was used by this sector when it opposed metric weights and measures in the pharmacies. Mainland Europe abolished its old apothecary's weights and measures about 1880 following a long battle. Han I opponent that! those pseudo units shown be abolished, I propose the mmHg should be stopped! I dont see a reason to use them! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Han Maenen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, March 17, 2002 10:54 AM Subject: [USMA:18829] Re: Short unit names Its use should absolutely be restricted to the printing industry. It should never spread beyond it, Han ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joseph B. Reid" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, 2002-03-17 01:27 Subject: [USMA:18804] Re: Short unit names Han Maenen wrote in USMA 18799: This is also why I fervently support the Q. It is based on SI, the mm, even though it is a quarter of that unit, still simply expressed with the decimal fraction 0.25. I couldn't disagree more. Joseph B.Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 TEL. 416-486-6071
